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Government seeks contractor for new large-scale cladding test
The government is looking for a contractor to carry out a new large-scale test on a cladding material different to the one used on Grenfell Tower.
It has issued a tender looking for a specialist contractor to carry out one test on a high-pressure laminate (HPL) system to see if it needs to be removed from high-rise blocks across the country.
In 2017, after the Grenfell Tower fire killed 72 people, the government commissioned tests on aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, the kind used on the tower and widely blamed for the spread of flames on the night.
These tests – called BS 8414 tests – involved combining different kinds of ACM with different kinds of insulation in 10m-high walls and setting fire to the bottom to see how they performed.
The majority of systems failed these tests and resulted in the government calling for a ban on ACM cladding and a programme of removal from hundreds of high-rise blocks across the country.
The government has since funded the removal of ACM from social housing tower blocks.
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However, there are a number of other combustible cladding materials that have yet to be tested, many of which are still attached to tower blocks and other buildings around the country.
There is growing concern over HPL, and in January Professor Richard Hull, academic and cladding expert, told Inside Housing that the next Grenfell-style disaster would be in an HPL-clad tower.
Inside Housing revealed last year that HPL had never passed a BS 8414 test in the UK.
Unlike the BS 8414 tests carried out on ACM, which involved a number of cladding and insulation combinations, for HPL the government will carry out only one test, in one configuration, with non-combustible insulation.
The successful contractor will be paid £50,000 to carry out the test, the tender notice said.
It will test only HPL that meets the European Class B classification for fire performance, meaning it is a combustible material but other forms of HPL have lower ratings.
In answer to a parliamentary question from Labour MP Steve Reed, housing minister Kit Malthouse said on Wednesday that the government has no plans to test any HPL panels with lower ratings.
Mr Malthouse also confirmed that the government will use the same fire barrier configuration as it did in the original tests it commissioned for ACM cladding.
This is despite criticism at the time of the testing method, which used fire barriers three times stronger than the industry standard and placed them directly below thermometers, meaning flames were at their weakest when they reached them.
A government source told Inside Housing that it believes it is testing a commonly used HPL panel and that it will consider whether other tests will be needed in light of this test.
The BS 8414 test on HPL is in addition to the government’s bespoke non-ACM tests, which will also test HPL cladding among other materials. These have themselves been criticised, in part for having no pass or fail criteria.
The government has confirmed that these tests will begin this week.
