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Government awards HPL cladding test contract
The Fire Protection Association (FPA) has been chosen to carry out new cladding tests for the government after the Building Research Establishment (BRE) opted out.
In a response issued yesterday to a written question from Labour MP Steve Reed, housing minister Kit Malthouse said: “Following an open competition the contract for a BS 8414 test of a high-pressure laminate cladding system has been awarded to the Fire Protection Association.”
BRE has conducted other post-Grenfell cladding tests for the government so far but told Inside Housing it did not bid for this contract because of the requirement for the testing house to design, procure and install the cladding systems.
The FPA, which was established by the Association of British Insurers, has previously been highly critical of the BS 8414 fire safety test for external wall insulation.
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BS 8414 tests involve combining different kinds of cladding with different kinds of insulation in 10m-high walls and setting fire to the bottom to see how they perform.
Unlike the BS 8414 tests carried out on Grenfell-style cladding, which involved a number of cladding and insulation combinations, for high-pressure laminate (HPL) the government will carry out only one test, in one configuration, with non-combustible insulation.
A government source previously told Inside Housing that it believes it is testing a commonly used HPL panel and that it will consider whether other tests will be needed in light of this test.
HPL cladding materials are widely used on tower blocks across the country and burn 115 times hotter than non-combustible products, according to a study.
The academic behind that study has warned that the next high-rise fire disaster “is likely to involve HPL” rather than aluminium composite material, which was used on Grenfell Tower.
Inside Housing previously revealed that no HPL cladding product has ever passed official safety test BS 8414.
Some social landlords have been removing HPL from their high rises.
Jonathan O’Neill, managing director of the FPA, said: “Our concerns regarding [BS] 8414 are well documented and are currently being considered by the [British Standards Institution] Committee, which is reviewing and updating the test.
“The work we have been commissioned to undertake on behalf of [the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government] is looking to assess the performance of systems currently installed (the tender was to carry out an existing BS 8414 test of a system representative of those in England).
“The design of the system and the materials used will be typical of an as installed system, ensuring that it’s as realistic a test as possible.”
A spokesperson for BRE said: “BRE is fully committed to improving global standards in the built environment and life safety is our key priority.
“We chose not to bid on this occasion due to the bid timeframe and the requirement for the bidder to design, procure and install the HPL cladding system.
“This is outside of the scope of what we generally do in relation to large-scale cladding testing.”
The government has also been conducting bespoke tests on other types of non-aluminium composite material cladding as well as HPL, but experts have criticised the method used.
