75 tower blocks failed fire safety tests on cladding

According to the Government, 75 tower blocks  from 25 councils have now failed the fire safety combustibility tests on cladding since the Grenfell Tower  fire disaster, blamed on buildings polyethylene insulation. Every panel testes has failed. In the past building materials passed building control officials are considered to be dangerous.

The Association of British Insurers told ministers in May 2017 that outdated building regulations should be reviewed because they had failed to keep pace with modern construction methods, including installation of flammable surfaces. “External cladding made from combustible material can often cause significant fire to spread upwards and between buildings” the ABI group said in its response to a consultation on housing policy.

An inquest into a blaze at Lakanal House, another tower block, which killed six people recommended in 2013, a review of construction rules on fire safety but has till now not concluded.

Wandsworth Council said it would install sprinklers in more than 100 blocks.

The Kensington and Chelsea council that owns the Grenfell Tower block destroyed by a devastating fire rejected recommendation from as far back as 2009 that it needed to exert tighter control of work done by contractors on its housing stock. These ranged from failures to repair leaks that had continued for years, to the poor quality of renovation work on KCTMO properties and multiple problems.

The British Safety standard model founded as Engineering Standards Committee in London in 1901, and adopting the name British Standards Institution in 1931, after receiver the Royal Charter in 1929, was adopted in 182 countries including Dubai, Germany, Australia, China, USA, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia and Sweden.

In the meanwhile the Camden Council became the first authority to evacuate residents over fire safety concerns, asking residents living in four high-rise towers in Chalcot estate to leave late on Friday. The Council said it had no option but to move residnets of 650 flats on the Chalcots estate so that remedial works can take place.

Theresa May said : “necessary” steps will be taken to find people accommodation. The council’s labour leader, Georgia Gould, said the council acted “as swiftly as we possibly can” to ensure people’s safety, and said “ as the fire service told us they could not guarantee our residents’ safety in those high rise blocks”.

“I know it’s difficult, but Grenfell changes everything and I just don’t believe we can take any risk with our residents’ safety and I have to put them first”.

Landlords Thirteen Group confirmed the three blocks at Kennedy Gardens in Billigham were partially clad with “grade-three” cladding. The cladding is thought to have been added to the buildings during a revamp in 2014. According to Ian Wardle CEO of Thirteen Group said “We acted immediately to ensure the safety of our residents by checking and double checking the nature of the cladding on our buildings, where it exists. We had specified that the cladding should be fire-retardant and following failed tests, work to remove the cladding will begin as soon as physically possible, and contractors will be on site from first thing Monday morning”.