The Daily Telegraph

Tower block residents face mass evacuation

- By Gordon Rayner and Robert Mendick

‘No stone will be left unturned. For any guilty parties, there will be nowhere to hide’

DANGEROUS tower blocks housing thousands of people could be evacuated over the weekend, the Government admitted last night, after tests showed at least 11 more buildings have combustibl­e cladding similar to that blamed for the Grenfell Tower fire.

An estimated 600 high-rise blocks have been covered in cladding in England alone, all of which are now under-fitted cladding to Grenfell, using the same highly flammable material.

Councils have been told in a letter from the Department for Communitie­s and Local Government to “move all residents out of the block” if buildings are deemed by fire brigades to be unsafe.

It could lead to the first mass evacuation since the Second World War, with local authoritie­s already scrambling to find hotel rooms and other temporary accommodat­ion should it be needed.

Downing Street insisted that “notesting on Monday – five days after the Grenfell Tower fire.

About 200,000 people are thought to live in the 600 blocks covered in cladding that has been sent for testing at the Building Research Establishm­ent in London. Although 11 cladding samples have failed combustibi­lity tests, at least three other buildings in the same council areas are known to have identical cladding that has not yet been tested.

The 11 samples came from buildings in eight council areas, including the panels at the Chalc will now be remov same design as those flammable polyethy ers of aluminium. the constructi­on fir out the work, and h “the panels that wer the standard that sioned”. It is conside

Last night the P chain told BBC’S Ne tremely concerned”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom