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Grenfell inquiry to look at why combustible cladding was so widely used Post-Grenfell fire safety checks stepped up as cladding pulled from sale worldwide
(about 4 hours later)
The public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire will be expanded to examine why combustible cladding was used on so many tower blocks across Britain amid mounting frustration at the slow pace and lack of transparency of emergency checks to identify at-risk buildings. The nationwide search for tower blocks at risk of a Grenfell-type blaze gathered pace on Monday as the government said 75 had now been identified and a material linked to the spread of the fire was pulled from sale worldwide.
Downing Street acknowledged tens of thousands of residents must be worried after only 60 of about 600 potentially at-risk blocks have been tested since the blaze. And while all of those have been found to have combustible cladding, the government has done nothing to allay anxiety by refusing to give details of its tests. The communities secretary, Sajid Javid, called on landlords of more than 500 other suspect blocks to urgently provide samples for testing after the company that makes a component of the cladding used on Grenfell discontinued its supply.
“Clearly it’s concerning for residents living in these blocks,” a Downing Street spokesman said on Monday. “It’s clearly a huge concern if [it] is the case that this [cladding] is on buildings across the country in local authorities, run by lots of different parties.” The number of tower blocks to have failed fire safety tests following the disaster has risen steadily to 75, but the government has been frustrated at the speed with which landlords have cooperated.
He signalled the public inquiry would seek to address a national failure of building regulations and inspections, saying: “The job for the public inquiry will be to find out how and why this happened.” Javid announced that every building checked so far had failed a combustibility test and made clear further that evacuations were possible. He said he expected councils to offer alternative accommodation while remedial work was carried out to make buildings safe.
Asked if the inquiry would look at the widespread use of the cladding, the spokesman said: “You would expect that to be part of the terms of reference, yes.” “I am concerned about the speed with which samples are being submitted,” he said in a statement to parliament. “I would urge all landlords to submit their samples immediately … At this time the safety of people living in these buildings is our paramount concern. Landlords must keep residential buildings safe.”
Earlier, a government minister appeared to blame councils and housing associations for the slow pace of fire safety tests on high-rise buildings. As part of an emergency inspection programme May announced last week, 100 samples a day can be tested. However, there have been results for only 60 tower blocks in 25 areas. Earlier on Monday, the manufacturer of the Reynobond polyethylene-filled panels used on Grenfell Tower pulled the product from sale globally for use on high-rise buildings. It is believed that the material may have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire through the 24-storey building, which claimed at least 79 lives. Explaining the decision to withdraw the material from sale, the US company Arconic cited concerns about the “inconsistency of building codes across the world”.
The housing minister, Alok Sharma, appeared to blame landlords for failing send in samples. He told BBC Radio 4 earlier on Monday: “We would say to all landlords out there, please urgently send those samples in.” Use of the product is in effect prohibited on towers in countries including Germany and the US, but not in the UK, although since the Grenfell fire, the government has said it “should not be used for cladding on a building taller than 18m”.
He also insisted that 100 samples could be tested each day, adding: “These tests take several hours to do. We are being very open and very clear; as soon as we have the numbers we do release them. It is indeed 100 a day, but of course it is a question of also making sure that we get these samples in as quickly as possible.” Investigations are being extended into the cladding on schools and hospitals nationwide and 15 government buildings have also been identified as being in need of inspection. .
Asked why the government had failed to act on concerns about the building regulations, he said: “I’m not here to make any excuses. What has happened is absolutely terrible and we need to learn the lessons from that. And if that means we need to make changes to regulations then of course we will do that. But this has to be led by the experts.” Javid acknowledged public “anger that a tragedy of this scale could be allowed to happen in 21st-century Britain and fear that it could happen again” as councils in Manchester, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Sunderland and London confirmed that panels were being removed from a number of residential towers. Evacuations have continued at blocks in Camden, north London.
Meanwhile, the Department for Communities and Local Government has been unable to say what test the buildings checked so far had failed, amid concern among building experts at a lack of transparency. Speaking about building regulations, Javid said there had been a “catastrophic failure” and that an independent panel would be established to recommend immediate steps to reform fire safety.
Last week, Melanie Dawes, the permanent secretary at the DCLG, told landlords to cut out samples of composite panels to a size of at least 25cm square and send them for testing to the Building Research Establishment. Since then the DCLG has only been able to say that they are combustible and have failed but notwhether they meet a British standard test. There were questions, however, about the government’s focus on testing samples.
Barry Turner, the director of technical policy at Local Authority Building Control, which represents council building control officers, was among those raising questions about the process. The shadow housing minister, John Healey, said: “Cladding is not the whole story. We know this from the coroners’ reports into the Lakanal House and Shirley Towers fires.”
“For any material to undergo a fire test as laid down in BS476 [which grades fire resistance] or one of the EU equivalent standards, you need a specific panel size, it needs to be mounted in a specific way,” he said on Monday. “I would like to know just what tests these panels are failing. There are fire tests done on individual products, but you need to test them combined [including insulation, cavity and firestops] to see if they meet performance criteria for the job as a whole. That is how these systems are assessed for compliance with the building regulations.” After residents were evacuated from four towers in Camden, it emerged that fire investigators were worried about internal fire risks, including hundreds of missing fire doors.
A DCLG spokeswoman said the government hoped to provide further information later on Monday. Stephen Mackenzie, a fire safety expert, also said the tests, which involve checking the combustibility of a piece of panel as small as 25cm square, were “overly simplistic” and mean “we could be pulling off cladding systems that are potentially OK”.
The latest developments came as Camden continued to evacuate 600 flats on its five-block Chalcots estate after it was deemed unsafe over concerns about combustible cladding and a range of other fire safety problems. Earlier in the day inquests opened at Westminster coroner’s court into four victims of the fire, including five-year-old Isaac Paulos, whodied of “inhalation of fire fumes”. He lived with his family on the 18th floor, but his body was found on the 13th. The Westminster coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, added that some 18 victims had so far been formally identified.
The Grenfell response team said on Monday it had spent almost £1.5m helping affected families, including £789,230 in discretionary payments to cover hotel bills for families displaced the tower and Grenfell Walk. The team said it had made 140 placements in hotels and that 364 households remained in emergency accommodation. Out of total payments of £1,450,730, it said it had made 243 cash payments of £500 to families while the Department for Work and Pensions put £5,000 directly into 108 households’ bank accounts. Downing Street indicated that the public inquiry into the fire would be expanded to examine why the combustible cladding was used on so many tower blocks across Britain.
A spokesman said the public inquiry would seek to address a national failure of building regulations and inspections and the widespread use of the suspect cladding. “The job for the public inquiry will be to find out how and why this happened,” he said.
More than 150 households from Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk are currently living in hotel rooms, and 59 offers of temporary homes have been made. Some families, when shown potential homes with views of the Grenfell Tower’s burned-out shell, have turned them down.
Javid said 111 affected households had received emergency payments of £5,500 as part of a £5m package, which the government boosted on Monday with a £1m grant to the British Red Cross, which is helping with relief efforts.
The Grenfell response team said on Monday it had spent almost £1.5m helping affected families, including £789,230 in discretionary payments to cover hotel bills. The team said it had made 140 placements in hotels and that 364 households remained in emergency accommodation. Out of total payments of £1,450,730, it said it had made 243 cash payments of £500 to families, while the Department for Work and Pensions put £5,000 directly into 108 households’ bank accounts.
Speaking at Glastonbury on Sunday, the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire “were murdered by political decisions that were taken over recent decades”.Speaking at Glastonbury on Sunday, the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire “were murdered by political decisions that were taken over recent decades”.
Responding to the comments in an earlier interview with BBC News, Sharma said: “It is very disappointing that people should want to turn this into a party political issue. What I am sensing is that what the nation demands is that we work together and make sure we keep people safe.”
Shadow housing minister John Healey also questioned McDonnell’s use of language. “He was giving voice to the very real anger and disbelief that many people have. I wouldn’t use the word murder. It is not yet possible to point to direct cause and effect, we don’t yet know the full details from Grenfell Tower,” Healey told Today.
He added: “What worries me now about these checks is that 60 have failed out of 60. That surprises me, that suggests they are just testing one product. And there have really got to be much wider safety checks and tests for the future.”