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Government should be testing more than cladding, says expert
The government should be testing more than just the cladding of tower blocks, a fire safety expert has said.
Sam Webb, architect and member of the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety and Rescue Group, is a fire safety expert who has spent years warning the government over fire safety failings in tower blocks.
The government has commissioned the Building Research Establishment (BRE) to carry out tests of the cladding from tower blocks.
There has been a 100% failure rate, with 120 tower blocks in 37 council areas tested so far. Prime minister Theresa May has announced an urgent investigation into why every sample has failed the test.
In a session at Housing 2017 Inside Housing asked if tests on the cladding were enough to reveal the safety of the outside of tower blocks.
Mr Webb said: “They should look at the entire assembly.”
This includes the insulation and any other materials that sit behind the cladding.
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Landlords have already started tearing down cladding after being told their samples have failed the BRE’s combustibility test.
Today the government revealed further details about the test.
The BRE test determines the “gross heat of combustion of products” in a device called a bomb calorimeter.
A bomb calorimeter is a thick-walled steel container used to determine the energy contained in a substance by measuring the heat generated during its combustion.
