Manufacturer Changed Grenfell Cladding Without Alerting Certifier

 The supplier of the ACM cladding used on Grenfell Tower changed the composition of one of its products without informing a UK certifying body, the inquiry has heard. Arconic added chemicals to the combustible plastic core of its Reynobond PE panels to change the colour from translucent to black but did not formally update certifier the British Board of Agreement (BBA) about the change. Former BBA deputy chief executive Brian Moore said that he first learned of the alteration when he was told by BBC journalist Tom Symonds in January 2018, seven months after the Grenfell fire. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/manufacturer-changed-grenfell-cladding-without-alerting-certifier-inquiry-hears/5111000.article

ACM Remediation Far Slower Among Blocks That Have Received Government Funding

 Of the 83 private blocks with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding that have completed remediation work, 73 (88%) have not received government funding, compared with just 10 (12%) that have. A total of 215 private high-rise blocks have been identified with ACM cladding, the same type of cladding used on Grenfell Tower. Of those, 101 have received funding from part of the government’s private sector ACM cladding remediation fund. Over a quarter (28%) of private buildings that have received ACM funding are yet to begin work, while work is in progress on 60% of these buildings. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/acm-remediation-far-slower-among-blocks-that-have-received-government-funding-69956?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Building Safety Fund (1) – Parliamentary Written Answer

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to recoup the costs of the Building Safety Fund from residential property developers.

Christopher Pincher: The Building Safety Fund should not be the only means of funding the remediation of unsafe cladding on high-rise residential buildings. Building owners should meet the costs without passing them on to leaseholders wherever possible, through their own resources or by recovering costs from applicable warranty schemes or from the developers or contractors who were responsible for the installation of unsafe cladding, as is happening with more than half of the private sector buildings with ACM cladding. Applicants to the Building Safety Fund are required to demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to recover the costs of replacing the unsafe cladding from those responsible.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-02-11/153224

Manager Warned Cladding Firm To ‘Urgently’ Improve Safety Years Before Grenfell Fire

A manager at the manufacturer that sold combustible ACM panels to be used on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment warned colleagues two years before the fatal fire that the cladding was dangerous and a safer version should be sold instead. Arconic technical manager Claude Wehrle’s warning came shortly after the firm’s US parent company had sought an assessment of the Reynobond PE panels produced in France and sold into the UK market. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/manager-warned-cladding-firm-to-urgently-improve-safety-years-before-grenfell-fire/5110570.article 

MPs Demand Answers Over Cladding Fund Gagging Clause

A committee of cross-party MPs has written to Robert Jenrick demanding answers over the inclusion of non-disclosure agreement clauses in two cladding removal funds. Their letter refers to a clause in the £1bn Building Safety Fund and the £200m private sector aluminium composite material cladding fund which restricts applicants from speaking to any journalists about the project or funding agreement without prior written approval from the government. The clause “seemingly also restricts public interest disclosure” without Homes England, the Greater London Authority and the MHCLG first being given the chance to make “representations” about any disclosure, the committee’s letter said. Read the letter on the House of Commons website.

https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/4337/documents/44127/default/

Voluntary Right To Buy Pilot Cash Was Redirected To ACM Fund

Ministers redirected cash set aside for the regional Voluntary Right to Buy (VRTB) pilot to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding from private sector blocks amid unexpectedly low demand. Launched in August 2018 for housing associations across the Midlands, the VRTB pilot was tied to £200m of funding predicted to pay for discounts on around 3,000 sales. But a recent Freedom of Information response from the MHCLG said: “The applications and sales progressed more slowly than expected, and the level of dropout was higher than was forecasted, which meant that there was spare budget in 2019/20. “Ministers decided to allocate some of that budget to urgent priorities, including the Private Sector ACM [Aluminium Composite Material] Cladding Remediation Fund.” Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/voluntary-right-to-buy-pilot-cash-was-redirected-to-acm-fund-68676?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60 

KCTMO Director Only Asked Architect About ‘Cost’ And ‘Appearance’ Of ACM

The landlord responsible for overseeing the Grenfell Tower refurbishment only discussed the “cost” and “appearance” of aluminium composite cladding (ACM) with the project’s designers, rather than its fire performance. In reference to the decision-making process around the type of cladding to be used on the building, David Gibson, previous head of capital investment at Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), told the inquiry: “The discussions we were having were: what does it look like, is it acceptable for planners and what’s the cost?” He added: “Discussions weren’t any further than that because we weren’t expecting to be offered anything that might not be compliant.” Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/kctmo-director-only-asked-architect-about-cost-and-appearance-of-acm-68208?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Post-Grenfell Cladding Work Could Take Until 2029

Grenfell-style combustible cladding is being replaced so slowly that it could take until 2029 before all buildings are fixed, Labour has said. According to government figures, 249 high-rise apartment blocks are yet to be made completely safe, and the majority of them are still wrapped in dangerous aluminium composite material (ACM) panels. Over the last six months privately owned towers have been fixed at a rate of 1.2 per month, and 88 blocks have still not started remediation works, official figures show. Social housing blocks are being fixed at the rate of just over two per month, and there are nine where nothing has happened yet. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/08/post-grenfell-cladding-work-could-take-until-2029-at-current-rate-says-labour 

£1bn Building Safety Fund Launches With Limited Availability For Social Housing Providers

The government has published the prospectus for its new £1bn Building Safety Fund for the removal of unsafe non-aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding systems, setting out limited circumstances in which registered providers and local authority landlords can access the funds. The fund was announced at the 11 March Budget earlier this year and follows a £600m fund previously made available for the removal of ACM cladding. In publishing the prospectus, the government emphasised that the fund is “predominately targeted at supporting leaseholders in the private sector facing significant bills”. Read more on the Social Housing website.

https://www.socialhousing.co.uk/news/1bn-building-safety-fund-launches-with-limited-availability-for-social-housing-providers-66566?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Grenfell Tower’s Fire-Spreading Crown Viewed As ‘More Aluminium Panel’

Phase One of the Grenfell Inquiry heard how the decorative architectural crown at the top of the tower played a significant part in spreading the fire. Questioned over his understanding the difference between solid aluminium cladding and ACM with polyethylene, Neil Crawford, of Studio E architects, said: “I just viewed it as a laminated aluminium panel…I didn’t have any perception that it was, well, the monster that it has become.” The first-phase report from the inquiry found the ACM additions to the original pre-cast crown had a major role in the catastrophic chain of events once fire could no longer be contained in the fourth-floor flat where it started. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/grenfell-towers-fire-spreading-crown-viewed-as-more-aluminium-panel/

Over 150 Social Sector High-Rises Identified With Unsafe Cladding

Latest MHCLG stats show that as of the end of January, 155 high-rise “social sector residential buildings” have been identified with ACM cladding systems unlikely to meet Building Regulations – down four from the end of December. Of these, 69 have completed remediation (45% of all identified) including receiving sign-off from building control where necessary – up one from the end of November. This includes two buildings that have vacated their residents and removed cladding prior to demolition. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/over-150-social-sector-high-rises-identified-with-unsafe-cladding/

High Rise Flats: Insulation – Parliamentary Written Answer

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2020 to Question 7630 on High Rise Flats: Insulation, what steps his Department will take to reduce the time period between the removal of combustible cladding and the installation of replacement non-combustible cladding.

Esther McVey: We have regular engagement with a named contact from each high-rise residential building with unsafe ACM cladding to ensure progress with remediation is being made. Where building owners are failing to make acceptable progress towards completing remediation, further action will be taken. Building safety is the responsibility of the building owner.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-01-30/10388

Downing Street Scrambles To Spin PM’s Grenfell Panel Appointment

The credibility of the Grenfell Inquiry has taken a hit with a key member of its panel exposed as having links to the company that made the tower’s cladding. Downing Street is scrambling to spin the Cabinet Office backed Prime Ministerial appointment of Benita Mehra to the panel after it emerged that Mehra was previously president of a charity that received a £71,000 donation from the philanthropic arm of Arconic – the US firm that made the panels found to be the main cause of fire spread. Already, Boris Johnson has had to concede to an investigation of the appointment. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/downing-street-scrambles-to-spin-pms-grenfell-panel-appointment/

Bolton Fire: Government Downplaying Risks Of HPL Cladding, Say Critics

The government has been accused of downplaying the fire risk posed by the type of cladding that burned ferociously on a Bolton student housing block – and of refusing help to worried residents of other affected buildings. In August, owners of flats in high-rise blocks wrapped in combustible cladding asked the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, for help to find the money to strip their buildings of all kinds of combustible cladding. It took almost three months for an official to respond that money would be made available to remove only the specific kind of aluminium composite cladding (ACM) used at Grenfell Tower, and not the high-pressure laminate (HPL) cladding used in Bolton and on thousands of other homes. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/17/bolton-blaze-housing-and-fire-chiefs-hit-out-over-cladding-lottery

Grenfell: Phase One Of Inquiry Report Published

The Phase One report of the Grenfell Tower fire inquiry has been published. The report states that the reason the fire spread so quickly to the whole building was due to Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding. The Phase One report looked into established exactly what happened in the early hours of 14th June 2017, and Phase two will focus on establishing how the condition of Grenfell Tower allowed the disaster to happen. Download either the whole report or the executive summary from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry website.

https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/phase-1-report

600,000 People Still Trapped In ‘Unsafe’ Tower Blocks

New analysis from the Labour Party suggests up to 600,000 people across England face being trapped in unsafe or unsellable high-rise properties due to unclear guidance over cladding safety. As reported by 24housing, yesterday’s report on Phase 1 of the Grenfell Inquiry revealed “compelling evidence” of the tower being too dangerous to live in – with the principle reason of the rapid flames being that the ACM panels acted as a source of fuel. Inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick said the external walls of the Tower – the focal point of the refurbishment work – failed to comply with building regulations. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/600000-people-still-trapped-in-unsafe-tower-blocks/

McVey Hints At ‘Wriggle Room’ Over Cladding Work

Housing minister Esther McVey has seemingly hinted at ‘wriggle room’ for private sector building owners over ACM cladding replacement – with no blanket definition of what constitutes exceptional circumstances for work not being done to deadline. This comes just a month after the Commons MHCLG committee warned that the £200m currently set aside for the remediation of private sector residential buildings with ACM cladding will not be enough. Responding to a written Commons question, McVey minister said such circumstances would instead be considered on a case by case basis. McVey also ducked behind references to “responsible entities” in responding to other questions raised over remediation. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/mcvey-hints-at-wriggle-room-over-cladding-work/

Grenfell Tower: Unsafe Cladding 'Still Affects Thousands'

Thousands of people in England are still living in tower blocks with unsafe cladding more than a year after the Grenfell disaster. More than 400 high-rise residential buildings still have the same type of external covering blamed for the rapid spread of the deadly blaze, official figures show. BBC News found other buildings with different cladding also deemed unsafe. The government said building owners should make their properties safe. One of the tower blocks identified as still having Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) present in their structure is the 128-flat Skyline Apartments complex in Leeds city centre. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-46103414

Social Landlords Call For Clarity On Cladding Safety

Social landlords have called for “greater clarity” over whether Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) panels on tower blocks could be safe despite failing the government’s combustibility test. The government said its independent expert fire safety panel will consider “early next week” whether ACM panels can be used safely as part of a wider external wall system “and therefore could remain on a building under certain approved circumstances”. Grenfell Tower was believed to have ACM panels with a polyethylene core. A number of landlords have already torn down cladding from their tower blocks after it failed the government’s combustibility test. Read more on Inside Housing.