More than 100 Scottish high-rise towers still have deadly cladding – despite millions in funds available
The Scottish Government criticised as it’s revealed not one penny of £450m available to deal with cladding issue has been spent. Exclusive by Martin Williams
MINISTERS are under increasing pressure to deal with a cladding crisis in Scotland as it emerged that over 100 local authority high-rise buildings have potentially dangerous cladding four years after the horrifying Grenfell Tower blaze that claimed the lives of around 80 people.
Research by The Herald on Sunday has revealed that around one in seven blocks of flats in Scotland overseen by local authorities have the combustible material.
It comes amid criticism that the Scottish Government has not spent a penny of up to £450 million available in the last year to deal with the problem.
At least 85 high-rise blocks and over 130 other buildings, mainly schools overseen by Scotland’s 32 local authorities, contain high-pressure laminate (HPL) panels which safety experts have raised serious concerns over.
Official analysis of local authority highrises carried out last year and seen by The Herald on Sunday show that a further 23 of Scotland’s 774 high-rise buildings reported polyethylene-type ACM panels (ACM-PE), another combustible material, similar to that found at Grenfell. A further 15 buildings reported “limited combustibility”.
Sprinklers or other forms of automatic fire suppression equipment were reported in only just over one in three (39 per cent) of high-rises. There are a reported 46,530 flats in high-rise buildings overseen by local authorities across Scotland – nearly half were built in the 1960s.
Thousands more flat owners in Scotland are also estimated to have had their privately-owned homes rendered worthless because they are wrapped in flammable materials.
Insurance hike
ONE study shows that residents of flats with cladding and other unsafe building materials are paying an average of over five times more for building insurance that they were a year ago, adding thousands to annual service charges.
Of the 32 local authorities in Scotland, North Lanarkshire Council has the most HPL in its public buildings, with 33 of its 48 tower blocks and 41 school buildings containing the cladding.
It is now assessing its council housing stock in the wake of new guidance by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors suggesting use of new forms to assess the fire safety of housing blocks.
The guidance is the result of a deal agreed with the Government last November designed to help an estimated half-a-million flat owners by ensuring that blocks without cladding systems are not caught up in the fallout from the Grenfell Tower fire, which has left many facing huge repair bills and unable to sell their homes.
Aberdeen City Council is the majority owner of 18 high-rise residential blocks which contain HPL cladding which it said was resistant to the spread of fire and hinders smoke development. Edinburgh City Council is responsible for 15 high-rise blocks and 16 schools with HPL. Falkirk has 11, West Dunbartonshire had six, and Dundee and Glasgow said they have one tower block with HPL.
In February, UK Housing Secretary
Robert Jenrick agreed to pay a further £3.5 billion to remove cladding from hundreds of thousands of unsafe high-rise flats in England. It came on top of £1.6bn in funding that was announced in March, last year.
A near £100m remedial fund granted to the Scottish Government by the UK Treasury as a result of that has yet to be spent from the first round.
And under the Barnett Formula, ministers can expect a further £350m from the new UK Government fund.
But the Scottish Government has said it will not follow the UK Government’s “piecemeal approach” for funding to remove unsafe cladding.
Financial help
THE Scottish Tenants Organisation has urged ministers in a letter to use the money to remove “dangerous” flammable cladding from existing buildings saying that it is “imperative that all homeowners in Scotland are given the required financial help”.
Property management company Apropos by DJ Alexander has also criticised the slow response to dealing with the crisis. Meanwhile, ministers have so far failed to deliver the results of a nationwide survey of publicly-owned buildings which might have widely-used HPL ordered 15 months ago.
Scottish ministers can expect a further £350m from the UK Government fund but the Scottish Government has said it will not follow its ‘piecemeal approach’ for funding
The deadline for information from public bodies was February 22, 2020 and was to include tower blocks, entertainment buildings, care homes, colleges and universities, hotels, schools, NHS Scotland buildings, and Scottish Prison Service buildings. A separate detailed High Rise Building Inventory aimed at collating the key aspects of the construction and fire safety features of high-rise domestic blocks is also believed to have been delayed and is now expected in the summer.
The Scottish Government’s building and fire safety working group was told at the end of last year that because of Covid-19 it was not feasible to complete by spring of this year. It was proposed that the HRI update should be postponed until spring, next year, but this was rejected.
Researchers from Imperial College London and Warsaw’s Building Research Institute in 2019 found that HPL cladding failed fire safety tests 80% of the time, while the category of cladding similar to that blamed for the rapid spread of the catastrophic fire at Grenfell failed 60% of the time.
The two types of cladding were the most flammable categories assessed by researchers in was then the most comprehensive study to date.
HPL panels are typically made from wood or paper fibre layered with resin and bonded under heat and pressure.
The Government-run safety programme was launched in the aftermath of the June 2017 Grenfell fire, which caused the deaths of 72 people. But it had initially focused on removing aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, used on Grenfell, from other buildings.
The version used on Grenfell was a particularly flammable type of ACM with an untreated polyethylene core but the Government has said that other variants of the same cladding, including those intended to be fire retardant, may also be dangerous.
Fire risk
IN a two-year-old advice note, the UK Goverment said that much of the HPL cladding on high-rise buildings should be removed due to the fire risk.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government note said HPL panels with European classification B, C and D installed alongside combustible insulation were “very unlikely to adequately resist the spread of fire”.
“Building owners with these systems should immediately take action,” it added, referring especially to buildings that were more than 18m in height.
There have been significant fires involving HPL cladding.
HPL window panels were used on Lakanal House, a building in south London where six residents died in a fire in 2009. The safety of HPL panelling came under fresh scrutiny when, in November 2019, a fire raced through a student accommodation block, The Cube, in Bolton. Witnesses said the blaze spread rapidly across the cladding identified by local politicians and planning documents as HPL.
Last year, a test commissioned privately by the Metal Cladding and Roofing Manufacturers Association (MCRMA) found that HPL burned almost as rapidly as the aluminium and plastic panels blamed for the disaster. Dr Jonathan Evans, a member of the MCRMA, said: “My conclusion is that no HPL should be acceptable to valuers on high-rise. The middle ground of 11-18m is more debatable. If you took a cautionary approach, you’d replace the HPL with fibre cement and the super risk-averse would replace the insulation, especially if the building is timber frame –which is very common in Scotland.
“The fire performance of a combination of timber frame, combustible insulation and HPL (of any grade) is highly dependent on high-quality workmanship and design details, and therefore a recipe for disaster in my view.”
Leith-based law firm Watermans Legal is setting up a Cladding Crisis in Scotland online advice event on Thursday to support those who have been hit by selling, buying and the mortgaging of properties.
Shawn Wood, a solicitor at Watermans Legal who will be speaking at the event, said: “We’re receiving a growing number of calls from people with concerns about their properties and the incurring costs which is why we felt it was necessary to host this event.
“It’s an opportunity to gather Scotland’s cladding experts and share our knowledge with the public.
“Sadly, residents have inherited these problems through no fault of their own.”
HAPPY, smiling and together – this was the Gillans as a family of five for their last Christmas just over a year ago.
As the threat of Covid began to hit home and the pandemic reached our shores, many families like the Gillans had been going about their routine as normal until the extent of the threat to life the virus posed saw the nation plunged into lockdown.
One year on since the first Scottish death to Covid and first national lockdown, the family should have been looking forward to celebrating twins Ebony and Hope’s 21st birthday next month.
However, it will be tinged with sadness as the first anniversary of their father Mark’s death falls just days after their milestone birthday.
Jan Gillan, who was married to Mark for 23 years, said: “Mark and Ebony both were ill at the exact same time. They both had exact same symptoms but at different times – when Mark had one symptom, Ebony had a different. Then Mark would have the symptom Ebony had and she would have the symptom her dad had, and this process went on for more than two-and-a-half weeks.
“They both took ill days after Mother’s Day last year. We asked for help from the proper channels and both self-isolated in totally different areas of the house.”
While Ebony, 20, took around four weeks to feel more like her normal self, Jan said Mark, 53, whom she described as her best friend of 37 years, began to deteriorate. “Mark clearly deteriorated so needed to be hospitalised,” she added. “As to date, no-one has tested us or offered us testing.
“Luckily, Ebony feels she has no long-term effects from Covid. I have never had a positive result but in November 2019, I was absent from my work with similar symptoms. Hope, Ebony’s twin, was extremely ill with a lot of the Covid symptoms around Christmas 2019, but I suppose we will never know.”
Twins Ebony and Hope, who have a younger sister Brenna, 19, were born on different days – Ebony at 11.50pm on April 5 and Hope at 1.30am on April 6.
Jan, 56, added: “Our twin girls have separate birthdays. Ebony’s is on April 5 – she turned 20 last year – and Hope turned 20 on April 6. It was that day Mark broke down in tears saying he didn’t want to be alone in the night and he didn’t want to die.
“The following morning, Mark and I took our breakfast drinks out to the garden. He said he felt the best he felt in weeks. A short while after that, he said it’s time – he was referring to calling the hotlines. That afternoon was the last we saw of our loved one.”
With 24 hours of being admitted to Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Mark, who worked in the Soapworks factory in the Queenslie area of the city, was placed on a ventilator and put in an induced coma from which he sadly never woke from. Mark died from Covid on April 27 last year.
“The decision was taken from us to turn the ventilator off, we were told they had a duty of care to Mark,” added Jan.
Mark, who had asthma and anemia, was described as a laidback, devoted family man and while a man of few words, his absence is sorely felt and “we are just empty”.
“The girls were real daddy’s girls and he lived for them. He was the kindest person you could meet,” said Jan.
“It’s almost a year since we lost Mark and our twin girls will be turning 21 just days before the first anniversary of their father’s death. This will be their first birthday without him.
“Our story is like so many thousands of other families, our lives have been stolen from us by this horrific disease, and left us all unable to function in our family unit, as well as a massive whole in our hearts.
“We are still trying to come to terms with this trauma and all it entails.”
It is stories like the Gillans’ that brought about the idea for a garden of remembrance where families will be able to reflect and think about their loved ones. The Herald is leading a campaign to create a memorial garden as a fitting tribute to every Scot who has lost their life to coronavirus.
Since it launched last year, it has received widespread support and a public fund raised more than £43,000.
Glasgow City Council’s Lord Provost Philip Braat and council leader Councillor Susan Aitken generously offered a site in the city’s Pollok Country Park for the location of the memorial.
To donate, go to The Herald memorial garden gofundme. com/herald-garden-ofremembrance. You can also send donations via post to The Herald Garden of Remembrance Campaign, Herald & Times, 125 Fullarton Drive, Glasgow, G32 8FG. Keep up to date with the latest news at www. heraldscotland.com/campaigns/ memorial-garden/
The girls were real daddy’s girls and he lived for them. Mark was the kindest person you could ever meet