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Large London housing association sues contractors over cladding
Housing association Notting Hill Genesis is suing four contractors over “an unacceptably poor level of design and workmanship” on cladding on six tower blocks in Brentford, Inside Housing can reveal.
Notting Hill Genesis is suing four contractors over “an unacceptably poor level of design and workmanship” on cladding on six tower blocks in Brentford #ukhousingPapers submitted to the High Court show the association is taking action against contractors involved in the development of a student village called Paragon.
Although Notting Hill Genesis initially pursued claims against seven contractors, Inside Housing understands it is now suing Caledonian Building Systems, Deepdale Solutions, Churchmore and Carey Jones Chapman Tolcher (Studio North).
On the side of the M4, Paragon is made up of six blocks ranging from four to 17 stories, the tallest of which was the biggest modular tower in Britain when it was built in 2006.
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They are home to 893 students and include 221 self-contained one and two-bedroom flats, some of which are social housing.
The cladding, as Inside Housing reported in December last year, is not aluminium composite material as the cladding on Grenfell Tower was. When the blocks were built, the cladding was described as a combination of ceramic tiles, glazing, terracotta and aluminium.
Caledonian is a builder which built the modules that make up Paragon. They were designed by Carey Jones and the cladding system was installed by Deepdale.
It is unknown what specific role Churchmore, a cladding supplier, played in the scheme but a spokesperson for the organisation told Inside Housing: “We didn’t do the cladding but I’m not speaking.”
In December last year, Notting Hill Genesis launched a procurement process to find a contractor to replace the cladding system.
In a notice to the Official Journal of the European Union, it said the towers had “incorrectly installed and missing fire breaks or cavity barriers behind the cladding system which means in the event of fire, flames could travel externally between floors”.
At the time, it said it would not seek recourse from any of the contractors.
A Notting Hill Genesis spokesperson told Inside Housing: “Since then, further investigations have revealed what we feel is an unacceptably poor level of design and workmanship – to the extent that we are duty bound to try and recover costs from the companies involved.”
It added: “We are committed to carrying out the work as soon as possible and this claim will not delay that process.”
Documents seen by Inside Housing last year revealed that a contractor whose name was redacted – not Caledonian – was responsible for “external vertical cladding [and] fire barriers”.
Meanwhile, a source close to Deepdale told Inside Housing that its contract does not include any design liabilities and so does not believe it is responsible.
Never Again campaign
In the days following the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017, Inside Housing launched the Never Again campaign to call for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.
One year on, we have extended the campaign asks in the light of information that has emerged since.
Here are our updated asks:
GOVERNMENT
- Act on the recommendations from Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building regulations to tower blocks of 18m and higher. Commit to producing a timetable for implementation by autumn 2018, setting out how recommendations that don’t require legislative change can be taken forward without delay
- Follow through on commitments to fully ban combustible materials on high-rise buildings
- Unequivocally ban desktop studies
- Review recommendations and advice given to ministers after the Lakanal House fire and implement necessary changes
- Publish details of all tower blocks with dangerous cladding, insulation and/or external panels and commit to a timeline for remedial works. Provide necessary guidance to landlords to ensure that removal work can begin on all affected private and social residential blocks by the end of 2018. Complete quarterly follow-up checks to ensure that remedial work is completed to the required standard. Checks should not cease until all work is completed.
- Stand by the prime minister’s commitment to fully fund the removal of dangerous cladding
- Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
- Explore options for requiring remedial works on affected private sector residential tower blocks
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
- Take immediate action to identify privately owned residential tower blocks so that cladding and external panels can be checked
LANDLORDS
- Publish details of the combinations of insulations and cladding materials for all high rise blocks
- Commit to ensuring that removal work begins on all blocks with dangerous materials by the end of 2018 upon receipt of guidance from government
- Publish current fire risk assessments for all high rise blocks (the Information Commissioner has required councils to publish and recommended that housing associations should do the same). Work with peers to share learning from assessments and improve and clarify the risk assessment model.
- Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out. Ensure assessments consider the external features of blocks. Always use an appropriate, qualified expert to conduct assessments.
- Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in the light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
- Adopt Dame Judith Hackitt’s recommended approach for listening to and addressing tenants’ concerns, with immediate effect
CURRENT SIGNATORIES:
- Chartered Institute of Housing
- G15
- National Federation of ALMOs
- National Housing Federation
- Placeshapers
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