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Building control officers must check the safety of cladding on buildings, even those shorter than 18m, the government has said.
Frances Kirwan, deputy director of the building safety portfolio at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, made the warning in a circular sent to building control bodies on Monday.
She told inspectors that even though the ban on combustible materials brought in by the government last year only applies to buildings taller than 18m, building control should still consider the risk to buildings of any height.
She added: “We are issuing this reminder because recent events have indicated that consideration is not routinely given to Requirement B4 and the need to resist the spread of fire over external walls in circumstances where the guidance… is not specific.”
Requirement B4 of the building regulations reads: “The external walls of the building shall adequately resist the spread of fire over the walls and from one building to another, having regard to the height, use and location of the building.”
It applies to buildings of any height but the specific instructions given in Approved Document B, the government’s official guidance on how to comply with the regulations, are much stricter for buildings taller than 18m.
Ms Kirwan did not refer specifically in her letter to the recent fire in Barking, which partly destroyed a block called Samuel Garside House that was shorter than 18m, after flames spread across combustible cladding and balconies.
But since that fire, there has been renewed discussion within government about the 18m height minimum for the ban on combustible materials.
Last month, the government instructed building owners to remove combustible materials from balconies “as soon as practical”, regardless of the height of the buildings.
Housing minister Kit Malthouse confirmed in an interview with Inside Housing that the government will not provide any funding for this work to take place.
In the same interview, he said that the government is still consulting on its legislation to implement the recommendations made by Dame Judith Hackitt in her interim review of building regulations and that building height would be part of that.