Councils must supply cladding for fire tests
Government orders building owners to send in samples for urgent checks
Councils across Britain have been ordered to supply samples of cladding used on tower blocks so that they can be safety tested, following the fire at Grenfell Tower. Councils with properties higher than 59ft that use aluminium composite material cladding must supply samples to the Department of Communities and Local Government for fire safety tests.
COUNCILS across Britain have been ordered to supply samples of cladding on the outside of tower blocks so that they can undergo rigorous testing to make sure they are safe, following the fire at Grenfell Tower.
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has written to local authorities telling them they must urgently check materials used on the outside of their high-rises.
Councils with properties more than 59ft high with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding must supply samples of the panels to the DCLG for fire safety tests to establish whether the material in their core is combustible. The first tests are expected to begin today.
Melanie Dawes, the DCLG permanent secretary, said the Government wanted to address public concern about “potential flaws” in the cladding on Grenfell Tower.
“While the exact reasons for the speed of the spread of fire have yet to be determined, we have concluded that there are additional tests that can be undertaken with regard to the cladding,” she said.
“We are therefore asking local authorities and other registered providers of social housing to identify whether any panels used in new-build or refurbishment are a particular type of cladding made of ACM.”
Last week it emerged that contractors had used a more flammable type of material for the outer layer of Grenfell Tower’s cladding, which Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said was banned in Britain. The DCLG later confirmed that the polyethylene filling between the two Reynobond aluminum panels did not pass building regulations for tower blocks over 59ft and a flame-retardant material should have been used instead.
However, John Cowley, managing director of CEP Architectural Facades, which provided the rainscreen panels for Grenfell Tower’s sub-contractor Harley Facades, said that was untrue. “Reynobond PE is not banned in the UK. Current building regulations allow its use in both low-rise and high-rise structures.”
The Grenfell Tower disaster has highlighted concerns over fire safety in tower blocks, with many asking whether sprinklers would have helped to save lives.
It emerged yesterday that four government ministers had been warned that fire regulations were not keeping people safe in high rise blocks. Letters sent by the all-party parliamentary fire safety and rescue group in the aftermath of a fatal fire in Lakanal House, south London, in 2009 warned the Government “could not afford to wait for another tragedy”, according to a BBC Panorama report.