Hundreds of UK blocks a fire risk
• About 600 high-rise tower buildings in England have similar cladding to the type thought to have played a part in Grenfell inferno
About 600 high-rise buildings in England contained cladding similar to that used on the London tower block, that caught fire last week, killing at least 79 people, officials said on Thursday.
About 600 high-rise buildings in England contained cladding similar to that used on a London tower block, that caught fire last week, killing at least 79 people, officials said on Thursday.
Flames spread rapidly up the 24-storey residential Grenfell Tower in what was Britain’s worst blaze since the Second World War. Exterior cladding added during a refurbishment might have played a part, residents have said.
The disaster in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea heaped pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May, already fighting for her political survival after her party lost its parliamentary majority in June’s snap election.
The Grenfell tragedy has been a focal point for anger at local authority funding cuts. There have been accusations of criminal negligence and the government faces an uphill task to rehouse people in the social housing scheme.
“The estimate provided to us by councils is that there are approximately 600 high-rise buildings with similar cladding,” May’s spokeswoman told reporters. The government had no estimates yet for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
“In terms of the people who are living in those buildings, we will do a further test to make sure the buildings are safe,” she said. “Obviously, nobody will be living in buildings that are unsafe.”
The spokeswoman said people would be rehoused if deemed necessary.
Earlier, May announced that cladding used on some buildings had been found to be combustible. Her spokeswoman said three had tested as combustible.
“[We] should of course be careful on speculating what caused this fire, but as a precaution the government has arranged to test cladding on all relevant tower blocks,” May informed parliament.
“I was informed that a number of these tests have come back as combustible.”
She said local authorities and fire services were taking steps to make affected buildings safe and to inform residents.
May has launched a public inquiry into the fire and police have announced a criminal investigation.
May said that tests on the cladding of Grenfell Tower would be made public in the next 48 hours.
Leaders of the council in the London borough of Camden said it would remove external cladding panels from five tower blocks on a local estate after finding they were not to the standard it had commissioned.
The council said it was informing the contractor that installed the cladding, made up of aluminium panels with a polyethylene core, that it was taking urgent legal advice.
The council also said that until the panels had all been removed there would be roundthe-clock fire safety patrols on the estate.
“This has been a wake-up call for the whole country,” said Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party.
“Residents of tower blocks all over the country are concerned, worried and frightened for their own safety.
“What we need is a step change in our attitude towards housing in this country,” the Labour leader added.
After apologising for a slow state response to the fire, the prime minister said that it was right that Nicholas Holgate, the CEO of the Kensington and Chelsea council, had resigned.