L&Q: ‘Virtually All’ Tall Building Inspections Find Significant Defects

In its annual report, the landlord said an intrusive survey programme of its 192 blocks that are 18 metres and taller is “ongoing” and that all “higher-risk” buildings have been inspected. The survey programme of all blocks 18 metres or higher is due to finish next month. “Given that virtually all invasive surveys to date have uncovered significant building defects, this is likely to give rise to the need for significant investment in stock,” the annual report said. Read more on the Social Housing website.

https://www.socialhousing.co.uk/news/lq-virtually-all-tall-building-inspections-find-significant-defects-72225?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60 

Residents Warned Of Smoke Danger Two Years Before Fire

Residents of an east London tower block that caught fire had warned about the danger of smoke spread and protested that fire wardens were ineffective during a years-long wrangle to make their homes safe. Leaseholders at New Providence Wharf, which has Grenfell-style cladding and combustible wooden balconies, told the developer Ballymore more than two years ago that fire had caused smoke to spread to such an extent that an apartment several storeys up and across in an adjoining block was “severely affected”, but no one contacted the tenant to help her evacuate. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/16/london-tower-block-residents-warned-of-smoke-danger-two-years-before-fire 

We Let Grenfell Tower Residents Down, Says London Fire Chief

Tower block owners refusing to fix fire risks are endangering lives, the UK’s most senior firefighter has said, as he admitted the London fire brigade let down the residents of Grenfell Tower. Andy Roe, who took over as London fire commissioner in January following severe criticism of the LFB’s culture and response to the Grenfell disaster, took aim at the landlords and developers of thousands of high rise blocks, which more than three years on are still wrapped in dangerous cladding or contain other fire risks. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/01/we-let-grenfell-tower-residents-down-says-london-fire-chief 

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/

Grenfell Cladding Choices Came With Fire Risk Warnings

The choices of cladding materials for Grenfell Tower was made despite a specification document warning that “systemised building envelopes” must meet building regulations and that “aluminium envelope systems do not normally have significant resistance to fire”. Introduced as evidence at the Grenfell Inquiry, the document also said the use of any combustible material for the insulation might need to be considered as the building height increased. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/grenfell-cladding-choices-came-with-fire-risk-warnings/

Consultants Knew About Cladding Risk, Grenfell Inquiry Hears

Emails that appear to show the architect, contractor, facade specialist and fire engineer working on the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower knew that the cladding would fail in the event of a fire have been published by the public inquiry. They were contained in evidence submitted by insulation manufacturer Celotex as it sought to argue that the designers, contractor and consultants involved in the refurbishment bore responsibility for the performance of the cladding system in the blaze. They include an internal mail which says: “There is no point in ‘fire stopping’, as we all know; the ACM will be gone rather quickly in a fire!” Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/consultants-knew-about-cladding-risk-grenfell-inquiry-hears/5103979.article

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

Government Ready To ‘Name And Shame’ Over Cladding Remediation

The government is close to “naming and shaming” those owners of buildings who have yet to take any action to remove dangerous cladding from high-risk residential buildings. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick told MPs he wanted building owners who had yet to apply for cash from the government’s £200m remediation fund to do so as quickly as possible. The fund, set up to support building owners’ efforts to remediate tower blocks featuring ACM cladding, closes in December. 22 privately-owned high-risk residential buildings currently had no plans in place to have their ACM cladding removed. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/government-ready-to-name-and-shame-over-cladding-remediation/5102404.article

Flats Chosen To House Grenfell Survivors Found To Have ‘High’ Fire Risk

A block of flats chosen by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC) to house survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire has been found to have “high” fire risk and needs immediate work to make it safe. A fire risk assessment of the Hortensia Road block in Kensington, which is currently housing 20 people and was set aside for the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire, also found that there was "no evidence" that the cladding of the building had been inspected. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/block-of-flats-chosen-to-house-grenfell-survivors-found-to-have-high-fire-risk-62729?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

'New-Build Homes Not Fire Safe'

Houses developed by Persimmon Homes and Bellway Homes have potentially dangerous fire safety issues, BBC Watchdog Live has found. New-builds constructed by the firms were sold with missing or incorrectly installed fire barriers, which are designed to inhibit the spread of fire. In some cases, it's thought a lack of fire barriers contributed to the spread of fires that have destroyed homes. Persimmon Homes and Bellway Homes both said they were addressing the issue. Building Regulations require that by law new homes are built with fire protection measures to delay the spread of fire and allow crucial time for escape. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48113301

Experts Warned Of Fire-Spread Risks Two Years Before Grenfell

Experts warned the government two years before the Grenfell Tower disaster that not enough was being done to tackle the risk of fire spreading through such buildings and that lives were in danger as a result. Whitehall-commissioned studies produced in March 2015 warned of potential fatalities unless officials addressed the danger of flames passing through concealed cavities. Officials kept the advice confidential. Experts believe that the same process in the cladding at Grenfell helped spread the June 2017 fire, which claimed 72 lives, including 18 children. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/04/experts-warned-of-fire-spread-risks-two-years-before-grenfell

KCTMO Left Thousands Of Repairs Undone

Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) – which manages Kensington and Chelsea Council’s housing stock, including the Lancaster West Estate where Grenfell Tower is located – is due to hand back its responsibilities by the end of January. An officer’s report shows KCTMO has built up a huge number of uncompleted repairs. The papers also reveal Kensington and Chelsea Council is beginning a programme of fire risk assessments of other towers, seven months on from the devastating blaze, which killed 71. It is aware of less serious fire safety issues in other blocks. Download the paper from the Kensington & Chelsea website.

https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/committees/Document.ashx?czJKcaeAi5tUFL1DTL2UE4zNRBcoShgo=R6xqrijFYBoLpFPJB1scGRB%2fQagbRlMEwrfaNejjjDoLBBj8OZL3AQ%3d%3d&rUzwRPf%2bZ3zd4E7Ikn8Lyw%3d%3d=pwRE6AGJFLDNlh225F5QMaQWCtPHwdhUfCZ%2fLUQzgA2uL5jNRG4jdQ%3d%3d&mCTIbCubSFfXsDGW9IXnlg%3d%3d=hFflUdN3100%3d&kCx1AnS9%2fpWZQ40DXFvdEw%3d%3d=hFflUdN3100%3d&uJovDxwdjMPoYv%2bAJvYtyA%3d%3d=ctNJFf55vVA%3d&FgPlIEJYlotS%2bYGoBi5olA%3d%3d=NHdURQburHA%3d&d9Qjj0ag1Pd993jsyOJqFvmyB7X0CSQK=ctNJFf55vVA%3d&WGewmoAfeNR9xqBux0r1Q8Za60lavYmz=ctNJFf55vVA%3d&WGewmoAfeNQ16B2MHuCpMRKZMwaG1PaO=ctNJFf55vVA%3d

Every Tower Block Checked So Far Fails Fire Tests

So far every sample of cladding from high-rise buildings that officials have tested has failed tests for combustibility, raising the prospect of many more mass tenant evacuations with hundreds of more buildings still to be checked. As a result of the test findings Salford Council has given the go-ahead to start removing aluminium composite cladding on nine high rise blocks in the Pendleton area of the city. The Government has also stressed that the failure in testing of the cladding would not necessarily mean that a building would have to be evacuated. Local authorities have been told to only consider evacuations where there is the most serious risk. Read more on Construction Enquirer.

Kensington Council Failure To Spend £270m Reserves On Housing

The council responsible for Grenfell Tower has been accused of carrying out “unacceptable” financial practices after it emerged the borough had stockpiled £274m of usable reserves following years of chronic underspending.  Labour MP for Tottenham David Lammy said very serious questions needed to be asked about why the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) was running a budget surplus despite repeated warnings from residents that the block posed a fire risk. The shadow Communities Secretary Andrew Gwynne said “If some of this money was spent on sprinkler systems and non-flammable cladding we wouldn’t be where we are today.” Read more on the Independent website.