You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Kingspan releases edited building regulations document after inconsistency with government
Insulation giant Kingspan has reissued a document on how to comply with building regulations, to reflect the government’s clarification of them following the Grenfell fire.
On Wednesday, Inside Housing revealed that Kingspan’s latest brochure on building regulations presented two interpretations of guidance included in Approved Document B.
It said the guidance could be understood as clearing rainscreen cladding for use if it achieves a ‘Class 0’ or ‘Euroclass B’ rating.
The cladding that was used on Grenfell Tower, which has since failed fire safety tests, is understood to have been certified to Euroclass B, leading to criticism that the government’s own guidance allowed this dangerous cladding to be used.
READ MORE
However, since the fire the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has insisted that the guidance in fact required cladding to be of ‘limited combustibility’ – a higher performance standard.
The original Kingspan document deemed this reading of the regulations the second possible interpretation.
However, after Inside Housing flagged the discrepancy, Kingspan removed the document from its website and published a second version that took into account the government’s comments since Grenfell.
A Kingspan spokesperson said: “In the interests of avoiding any misunderstanding, we have amended the document to reflect the DCLG’s [now MHCLG] advice to local authority and housing association chief executives on 22 June 2017.”
The government has been accused of placing “determination to avoid any liability” for Grenfell above the need for clear guidance through its insistence that Approved Document B clearly required cladding to be of limited combustibility.
Last week Paul Everall, chief executive of the Local Authority Building Control and the civil servant in charge of building control from 1991 to 2005, told Inside Housing that “at the very least” guidance was unclear on this crucial point.
The government wrote to social landlords just days after the fire noting that “for the avoidance of doubt” rainscreen cladding should meet a limited combustibility standard.
It is not believed to have issued any clarification to this effect before the fire.
Responding to the Kingspan document, a spokesperson for the MHCLG said: “Nothing is more important than keeping people safe. We have issued clear guidance, on the advice of an expert panel, after undertaking a comprehensive fire safety testing programme.”
