You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Interim fire safety measures to cost council £5m
Interim fire safety measures are set to cost an east London council £5m while it replaces unsafe cladding on three tower blocks.
Interim fire safety measures to cost Newham Council £5mNewham Council agreed to remove and replace cladding on Ferrier Point, Nicholls Point and Tanner Point last Thursday.
The three blocks are clad in aluminium composite material (ACM) and stone wool insulation combinations which have failed government fire safety tests carried out by the Building Research Establishment.
Among other interim actions, round-the-clock fire safety wardens, temporary fire alarm systems and increased waste collections have been put in place at the buildings in line with recommendations from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
The ongoing cost of the measures is around £90,000 a week, according to report to the council’s cabinet.
Read more
Removing and replacing the cladding on the towers is expected to take 13 months, with the initial investigations lasting one month, removing the cladding six months and recladding a further six.
A spokesperson for the council confirmed today (Monday) that the interim measures would stay in place for the duration of the works, meaning their total cost could be some £5m.
The figure does not include the landlord’s spend on the cladding work itself – which has not yet been costed – or the £100,000 bill already run up.
Cladding was installed as part of refurbishment works on Nicholls Point and Tanner Point in 2009 and Ferrier Point in 2012.
Ferrier Point was clad by Harley Facades and Rydon Construction for £3.5m – the same pair which carried out similar work on Grenfell Tower and the Chalcots Estate.
“Major works costs will need to be included in the council’s housing capital programme and may have implications for the delivery of the existing planned programme as additional resources may be required,” said the report, written by Justin Jupp, director of community and environment commissioning at Newham Council.
It added that the council expects the costs of the cladding work to be met by its housing capital programme’s major repairs reserve, which has a balance of £33m.
Newham mayor Sir Robin Wales has written to the DCLG to request that it funds the cladding replacement, but had received “no substantive response” by last Thursday.
A decision over what cladding system will be installed has not yet been reached.
Related stories
