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Cladding can ‘fail’ in strong winds, Javid reveals

Cladding on some buildings can “fail” in strong winds, the communities secretary revealed in a statement to parliament yesterday.

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Cladding can ‘fail’ in strong winds, Javid reveals

Sajid Javid said the British Board of Agrément – a board of construction inspectors – had investigated buildings in Glasgow where cladding has fallen off buildings and had found that some cladding systems “may be designed and installed in such a way that they could fail in strong winds”.

Mr Javid added he is unaware of any injuries caused by cladding falling off blocks but he has written to building control bodies to draw their attention to the issue.

The majority of tower blocks with cladding – 95%, or 165 out of 173 – have failed the combustibility tests, he said.


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Out of 196 households from Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk requiring a new home, only 29 have been rehoused.

John Healey, shadow secretary of state for housing, questioned the slow progress in rehousing families.

He said: “Twelve weeks on, how on earth can it be that only 29 households of the 196 from Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk have been rehoused? What is the secretary of state doing to speed this up and when will all the survivors be offered permanent rehousing?”

Mr Healey also asked when tower blocks’ non-aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding will be tested “so residents know whether their homes are safe”.

But Mr Javid said there is “nothing to stop” housing providers sending samples of any type of cladding to be tested “but for all the right and obvious reasons the priority had to be ACM-type cladding”.

He has asked the Building Research Establishment to start testing and publishing information on other types of cladding.

Housing associations have said they previously sent non-ACM samples but were told these would not be tested because they are not ACM.

Mr Javid revealed 27 councils have asked for financial help, of which the government is in discussions with six. No housing associations have asked for financial help, he said.

In response to the structural issues at the Ledbury Estate in south London, Mr Javid said he will be extending the term of the fire safety expert panel by at least four months and adding structural safety experts to the panel.

He has also asked Dame Judith Hackitt, who is leading the review into building regulations, to include structural issues in her review.

Mr Javid said the structural strengthening work at Ledbury Estate should have been done following the Ronan Point disaster in 1968 and that there are some “really big questions” for Southwark Council to answer.

He added: “The cracks that were discovered were large enough to put a human hand through or to put books in. Those cracks did not appear overnight. They had been there for some time – months, or even years. How can it be that the local authority was seemingly able to act only after the Grenfell tragedy?”

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