The government has confirmed another 111 buildings do not comply with building regulations following the latest round of detailed fire safety tests in the wake of the Grenfell disaster.
The latest tests focused on wall cladding systems consisting of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding with a polyethylene filler (category 3) with stone wool insulation.
A government update confirmed: “The results show this combination does not meet current building regulation guidance.
“111 buildings are currently known to have this combination of materials in their wall cladding systems – 90 of which are local authority or housing association owned or managed.”
A guidance note adds: “Wall systems with these materials therefore present a significant fire hazard on buildings over 18m.”
The failures follow the first round of detailed tests last week on a wall cladding system consisting of ACM with polyethylene filler (Category 3) and foam insulation, with fire breaks and cavity barriers in place.
That combination failed to meet current building regulations guidance and 82 buildings are currently covered in it.
Cllr Simon Blackburn, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said: “Councils will continue to get on with what they need to do to ensure people are safe in their homes. This includes replacing materials on high-rise blocks affected by these fire safety tests.
“The tragedy at Grenfell Tower has clearly exposed a systemic failure of the current system of building regulation.
“The Government must commit to meet the full cost to councils of removing and replacing cladding and insulation systems.
“It is also imperative that this testing process moves quickly to identify what landlords should be replacing these systems with as soon as possible.
“With these latest test fails affecting buildings owned by a range of different landlords across the country, the Government also needs to make sure there is capacity within the housebuilding industry to take quick action to carry out the scale of remedial work that looks likely to be needed.
“We also continue to call on the Building Research Establishment and the industry to release results of previous safety tests, including desktop studies.
“Everything must be out in the open and this needs to happen as soon as possible.”
