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NEWS


New cladding materials tests announced IT HAS been announced that the


government has widened its fire testing regime to include materials other than aluminium composite material (ACM), which could mean ‘potential uncertainty for thousands more residents’. Reporting on the announcement,


The Guardian said the government’s Housing Minister, Kit Malthouse, had ordered combustibility tests on cladding panels used on high rise residential blocks, hotels and student accommodation ‘that differ’ from ACM panels used on 437 buildings ‘identified so far’. Research has suggested that ‘at least’ 160 high rises have been built with materials used in rainscreen cladding systems ‘that have not been accounted for’ in previous government testing. These include high pressure


laminate (HPL) panels made from compressed wood or paper fibre, used to produce ‘colourful skins for new buildings’, and some of which are classed as combustible. The development follows pressure from the Labour party, with The Guardian pointing out that it has ‘the potential to dramatically increase the number of buildings that may require action to make them safe’. Mr Malthouse stated that


fire safety experts had updated guidance for the government, adding: ‘We have commissioned the Building Research Establishment to conduct a programme of testing on non-ACM materials and we expect that testing to start shortly’. He added that the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) had been ‘cajoling’ private building owners to remove ACM panels, and was considering ‘more assertive’ measures. This was because the latest


figures from the government showed that only five out of 176 privately owned towers identified as having combustible ACM cladding had seen panels replaced. An urgent question in parliament was lodged by Shadow Housing and Communities Secretary, John Healey, to which Mr Malthouse replied:


6


‘There remain 42 private residential buildings for which the owner’s plans are unclear, so we are maintaining pressure and rule out no solutions.’ Inside Housing later reported that


the tests will begin in March, with results expected to be published in the summer, according to Mr Malthouse’s comments at an earlier Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee meeting. MHCLG’s head of the building safety technical policy division, Bob Ledsome, also appeared and said that BRE’s final reports were expected ‘certainly by the summer’. When asked if the government


would ‘seek to remove’ such cladding if it was ‘as dangerous’ as ACM, Mr Malthouse stated: ‘I can’t see that we’ll have any choice but to do that, yes. If it’s equivalent to ACM cladding and proven to be the same, then the tenants, leaseholders or whoever’s in the building would expect remediation’. The news outlet noted that insulation business Rockwool had previously claimed that there are another 1,678 high rise or high risk buildings with non ACM combustible cladding, with some social landlords already having ‘taken steps’ to remove it from their buildings. Mr Healey responded: ‘It should be a cause for national shame that over 19 months after the Grenfell Tower fire I am having to drag ministers to the house


MARCH 2019 www.frmjournal.com


because there are still buildings in this country cloaked in Grenfell-style cladding and residents who do not know whether their homes are safe. ‘It’s shocking that the


government’s own figures show there were 437 high-rise blocks with the same Grenfell-style cladding, and 370 are yet to have this removed. It’s shocking that the minister knows every one of these blocks but won’t name the landlords and won’t tell the residents.’ The Independent also reported that Mr Healey had responded: ‘Whatever the minister says he’s doing, it isn’t working’, and added that the government response had ‘simply been too slow, too weak and always under pressure from this House and from Labour. If the government can’t fix problems this serious and this urgent, what on earth is it in office for?’ Labour’s plan to tackle cladding


issues would see it widen the testing programme for building materials, set a deadline for all blocks to be made safe, and to ‘make clear’ the legal duty to landlords to get the work done ‘and not pass the bill on to leaseholders’. It would also set up a loan fund for landlords to pay for works, name landlords refusing to make changes, and toughen sanctions ‘up to and including taking over blocks’. In response, Mr Malthouse criticised him for making this ‘such an antagonistic exchange’, and


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