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Bolton blaze: housing and fire chiefs hit out over ‘cladding lottery’ Bolton fire: government downplaying risks of HPL cladding, say critics
(about 7 hours later)
Calls for overhaul of safety rules after fire spreads rapidly at student accommodation Ministry of housing officials were apparently dismissing pleas for removal of flammable material as recently as a fortnight ago
Housing and fire chiefs have criticised the government over a “cladding lottery” and called for an overhaul in UK fire safety regulations after a fire at student flats in Bolton spread “extremely rapidly”. 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 on Friday – and of refusing help to worried residents of other affected buildings.
An investigation has been launched after more than 200 students were evacuated when what initially appeared to be a small fire ripped through the upper part of the town-centre six-storey building, which is cladded in high-pressure laminate (HPL) material, “within minutes”. Officials were dismissing pleas for the removal of high-pressure laminate panels similar to those used at the Cube in Bolton as recently as a fortnight ago, the Guardian has learned.
The mayor of Salford city council, Paul Dennett, who leads the Greater Manchester’s high rise taskforce set up after the Grenfell tragedy, said it was an industrial crisis and called on the government to invest more funds in what he described as a “cladding lottery”. In August, owners of flats in high-rise blocks wrapped in combustible cladding in other parts of Greater Manchester 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 strip only the specific kind of aluminium composite cladding used at Grenfell Tower, and not the high-pressure laminate (HPL) cladding used in Bolton and on thousands of other homes.
“I’m sure there will be many people living in buildings with cladding today who will be very worried about what they saw last night and will be wondering about their safety and the safety of their children,” he said. The official said that “government intervention to provide funding for the removal of unsafe ACM cladding is wholly exceptional” and ”was based on the unparalleled fire risk ACM poses”.
“We know that the prime minister is visiting today and we will be looking to him to understand the implications of what happened last night and to see if we now need to go further to remove cladding that’s on other buildings and give those families piece of mind that they probably don’t currently have.” The response came despite the government’s own fire safety advisers calling for the panels to be removed unless they are used with the least combustible insulation. They have told owners to take “immediate action”. It is estimated that hundreds of high-rise apartment blocks are believed to be covered in combustible HPL panels.
Boris Johnson visited the scene of the fire at The Cube student accommodation on Saturday afternoon and briefly met students who had been evacuated. Over the weekend, an investigation was launched into Friday’s fire, which caused the evacuation of 200 students and two injuries. A small fire on the fourth floor ripped through the upper part of the six-storey town-centre building, which the fire brigade said was clad in high pressure laminate panels, “within minutes”. One witness said the fire was “crawling up the cladding like it was nothing”. Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said it had requested a fire safety assessment of the building in 2018 which included assessing the cladding materials. It said unspecified works were subsequently carried out.
He hailed the “incredible response” from the community after appeals were made via social media to help students displaced by the fire. “We feel extremely let down by the government continuing to ignore our pleas to take the dangers of other materials such as HPL seriously,” said Fran Reddington, a tower block resident in Manchester who wrote to Jenrick. “The recent horrific fire at Bolton with HPL cladding clearly demonstrates that this cladding is as dangerous as ACM and we urge government to reassess, retest and provide much needed funding to leaseholders in these blocks. We are relying on sheer luck. You shouldn’t have to rely on luck when your life is at stake.”
But his government also came under attack from the Fire Brigades Union general secretary, Matt Wrack, who said the latest blaze was deeply troubling and highlighted the “complete failure” of UK fire systems. The government still has not completed testing of HPL cladding to fully determine the fire risk it poses and it will not know how many thousands of residents are at risk from the material until March 2020 at the earliest, as it only launched its data collection exercise in July this year.
“This is not how any building should react to a fire in the 21st century, let alone a building in which people live,” he said. “It’s time for a complete overhaul of UK fire safety before it’s too late.” A spokesperson for the ministry of housing, communities and local government denied that it had been slow to tackle the risk. “Building owners must ensure their tenants can live safely in their homes and this means all cladding systems, including HPL, that do not conform to our strict building safety standards must be removed,” they said.
Meanwhile, Grenfell United, the group of survivors and bereaved people that formed after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, called for the declaration of a national emergency over the lack of action. “We made clear that we agree with the Hackitt review and have committed to implementing its recommendations in a new building safety bill.”
The government’s response to the cladding scandal has largely been confined to aluminium composite material (ACM) panels, but there could be thousands of blocks with HPL. In July 2017, just a month after the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people, Labour’s shadow housing secretary, John Healey, was among those calling on the government to widen its testing regime beyond Grenfell-style cladding. The then housing secretary, Sajid Javid, replied that it was important to prioritise, but that didn’t “preclude tests on other types of cladding”. Yet it wasn’t until April 2019 that tests on HPL began.
Government experts on fire safety demanded in July that HPL panels should be removed as soon as possible from housing blocks taller than 18 metres. “It was always implausible that it was only this specific type of cladding that was at fault when the whole system of building safety checks had been exposed as failing, but ministers refused to act,” said Healey. “The government still hasn’t passed the legislation needed to overhaul the high-rise fire safety system.”
At a press conference in front of building, the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said the form of cladding on the building was concerning and raised “issues that will have to addressed”, although he confirmed it did not have the same cladding that was on Grenfell Tower. Sarah Jones, Labour’s shadow housing minister, said: “It’s scandalous that ministers knew this type of cladding was lethal for over a year and failed to act.”
The building was re-clad in 2018, according to council records that show the private company Assent Building Control signed off the works – though this is normal practice following the privatisation of building control. Sources with knowledge of government thinking suggest its decision to prioritise tackling ACM cladding appeared to be driven in part by the potential additional cost of exposing a far higher number of affected buildings than the 436 found to be covered in ACM. It has already earmarked £600m to cover replacement costs of ACM. They also highlighted the greater political urgency in tackling Grenfell-style cladding and awareness that civil servants and council officials were already stretched by dealing with ACM.
Dave Keelan, an assistant chief fire officer with Greater Manchester fire service, did not confirm the cause of the blaze, as the investigation continues. Boris Johnson visited the scene of the fire on Saturday afternoon and briefly met students who had been evacuated. He hailed the “incredible response” from the community after appeals were made via social media to help students displaced by the fire. The University of Bolton said it had short-, medium- and long-term plans in place to support students, with food and accommodation in place for all evacuated students. Access to the building would be reviewed on Monday.
Firefighters were expected to remain at the scene on Bradshawgate for the next few days. The Fire Brigades Union general secretary, Matt Wrack, said the latest blaze was deeply troubling and highlighted the “complete failure” of UK fire systems. “This is not how any building should react to a fire in the 21st century, let alone a building in which people live,” he said. “It’s time for a complete overhaul of UK fire safety before it’s too late.”
In the meantime, the University of Bolton said it has short, medium and long-term plans in place to support students, with food and accommodation in place for all evacuated students. Access to the building would be reviewed on Monday.
A donation page set up for the students affected by the blaze has raised almost £10,000. The official Just Giving page managed by Forever Manchester as part of the Greater Manchester Disaster Relief Fund, said: “These students are home and international students and had to leave immediately in what they were stood in, they have left with no personal possessions and there is no prospect of returning to this accommodation given the severity of the fire.
“The Greater Manchester Disaster Relief Fund is now accepting donations to support those affected. All donations to the Bolton student flats fire appeal will be gratefully received and passed on to those students who are in need.”