Advertisement

More Than Two Years After Grenfell, The Government Promises A Fire Safety Crackdown

A Treasury bail-out could pay for the removal of Grenfell-style cladding still covering hundreds of tower blocks as the government admitted progress to address a series of fire safety issues had been “unacceptably slow”.

More than two years after the west London blaze that killed 72 people, housing secretary Robert Jenrick outlined a crackdown that would represent the “biggest change to our building safety regime for 40 years”.

Some 315 high-rise buildings are still covered in flammable aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, the same material blamed for the rapid spread of the Grenfell blaze.

Other issues include thousands of faulty fire doors still being in use and buildings shorter than 18m being excluded from a cladding ban.

In the House of Commons on Monday, Jenrick said he was preparing to name and shame those responsible for private buildings that have yet to start getting rid of “unsafe ACM cladding”.

The cabinet minister also told MPs he would begin immediately to establish a new building safety regulator, and that he is “minded” to lower the height threshold for sprinkler requirements in new buildings from 18m to 11m.

Jenrick added the 18m height threshold on the ban on cladding, introduced in December 2018, could be also be lowered “to at least 11 metres”, as he said regulations had for many years “relied on crude height limits”.

Cruddas Park House in Newcastle as messages about fire safety from survivors and bereaved families of the Grenfell disaster were lit up on towerblocks on the second anniversary of the blaze.
Cruddas Park House in Newcastle as messages about fire safety from survivors and bereaved families of the Grenfell disaster were lit up on towerblocks on the second anniversary of the blaze.

The height threshold was criticised in the aftermath of a fire that gutted student housing in Bolton last November. The Cube building was found to be 14cm short of the restriction, which meant the high-pressure laminate (HPL) cladding covering the building met regulations. The Fire Brigades Union says 11m is important as it is the height modern-day fire brigade cherry-pickers can reach.

ACM cladding has left leaseholders in private apartment blocks in limbo as many landlords refuse to remove the material, leaving residents with sky-high bills to remediate the buildings themselves. Campaigners have...

Continue reading on HuffPost