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Eleven cladded towers fail safety tests
Fire safety checks on tower blocks have so far identified 11 buildings with combustible cladding.
Following the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower last week, landlords are inspecting the 600-or-so cladded high-rise buildings for aluminium composite material (ACM), which is being tested by the Building Research Establishment.
In a letter to MPs last night, communities and local government secretary Sajid Javid said: “So far we have had
samples from 11 high-rise buildings in eight local authority areas where the cladding has failed the test.
“All landlords and fire and rescue services for those local authorities have been alerted to the results and we are in touch with all these areas to support and monitor follow-up action.”
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Camden, Manchester and Plymouth are the only authority areas named in the cabinet secretary’s letter, though Mr Javid said the others will be made public once landlords whose ACM samples failed the test have informed tenants.
Yesterday, Camden Council said it was tearing down cladding from five towers on the Chalcots Estate. The cladding was discovered to be the same as that used for Grenfell Tower, despite the authority claiming it had requested a more fire-resistant material.
Cladding on the Village 135 high-rise in south Manchester and three buildings in Plymouth were also among those to fail the test, according to the BBC.
Snap Inside Housing research has identified other towers across London where cladding material has not yet been identified.
Mr Javid said that more than 100 ACM samples can be tested per day, and urged “any landlord who owns a building of this kind to send samples for testing as a matter of urgency”.
He added that the government expects “alternative accommodation” to be provided for tenants whose buildings are found to be unsafe.
“We cannot and will not ask people to live in unsafe homes,” he said.
