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Council block in Hackney emptied due to ‘potentially combustible insulation’
Hackney Council will move 41 families from a block in order to replace the “incorrect insulation” that it claims did not meet building regulations when it was built in 2011.
Investigations of Bridport House on the Colville Estate in April found a series of construction defects, which included missing barriers to stop the spread of smoke and fire, as well as flawed brickwork, balconies and windows.
The council said it will be pursuing legal action against Willmott Partnership Homes (WPH), the contractor that built the homes.
WPH said the insulation was “widely accepted” as being compliant with building regulations at the time it was built and was approved by the council’s building control team.
Concerns about Bridport House were first raised in March by engineers who were working on a separate project within the building.
Since then, a series of additional fire safety measures have been introduced, including 24-hour patrols and a change in evacuation procedure.
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Bridport House won several awards when it was opened in 2011, while the estate that it is part of has been hailed as “some of the best council housing ever built”.
While Hackney Council has said the building is currently safe, it has decided that it would be unsafe for residents to remain in the building while work to replace the insulation is carried out. The council added that it would also be hugely disruptive for residents to remain in the building and would prolong the works.
The work could take two years to complete and involves the removal of all brickwork and balconies, exposing the existing insulation and creating a fire risk, the council said.
Residents will be moved gradually over the next year either to temporary accommodation or to another permanent home in Hackney.
No work will begin until all residents have been removed from the building.
A Hackney Council spokesperson told Inside Housing that the insulation used on the building, called Kingspan Kooltherm K12, should not be used on buildings like Bridport House that are taller than 18m.
They said no tests were carried out to see if the insulation could be compliant with the cross-laminated timber frame and type of brickwork used at the block.
However, a representative from WPH said the matter is “complicated” and has been “significantly exacerbated by various aspects of the building regulations being reinterpreted following the Grenfell tragedy”.
They said the cross-laminated timber frame structure and insulation were both part of the council’s tender specification upon which the building contract was based.
Mayor of Hackney Philip Glanville said: “We are sorry for the failures in the construction of Bridport House and for the huge disruption residents continue to face.
“Moving residents from homes we all hoped would be new and permanent is not an easy decision but our first priority is their safety, and we have decided that at Bridport House doing this work while the building remains occupied would create an unacceptable risk.
“We will do everything we can to ensure that this process is as smooth as possible, with a dedicated team and independent advice to support tenants into the best homes we have available and a package of compensation that recognises the immense upheaval to their family lives.
“We will be taking legal action to hold those responsible for these failures to account. We also should have done a better job.”
A representative from WPH said: “WPH is disappointed at the way the problems at Bridport House have been portrayed by Hackney Council.
“The council has made some very strong statements today, many of which we do not accept. However, in view of the threat of legal action, we are prevented from responding to them in detail at this stage.
“Notwithstanding that point, we too want to say how sorry we are that matters have turned out in this way and of course for the concern this will have caused to the residents at Bridport House.”
