UK government told Grenfell cladding was dangerous 15 years before fire

The UK government was informed that the type of cladding installed on Grenfell Tower should "never ever be used" on high-rise buildings 15 years before the block was destroyed in a fire that claimed 72 lives, according to evidence presented at the inquiry into the disaster.

The inquiry was informed that the polyethylene-cored aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding that was used on Grenfell Tower's facade was subject to a government-funded safety test in the summer of 2001.

The panels failed dramatically and the test had to be stopped early as 20-metre-high flames rose from the test rig after just five minutes.

Government officials were made aware of the test in September 2002 – 12 years before ACM was selected for Grenfell Tower and 15 years before the deadly June 2017 fire. However, no warning was passed on to the construction industry.

Panels "should never ever be used"

Giving evidence to the inquiry this week, Dr Debbie Smith, former managing director of the Building Research Establishment (BRE), which carried out the tests, was questioned about its implications.

She said that at the time the government understood that ACM panels should not be used on high-rise buildings.

"Casting your mind back to September 2002, as best you recall it, were you in any doubt in your mind that the government understood, so far as you knew, that ACM panels with a polyethylene core should never ever be used above 18 metres?" asked inquiry lead counsel Richard Millett.

In response she said, "within that context of Fire Note 9 [BRE's testing method to assess the fire performance of external cladding systems], yes."

The results of the test were never published by the government and only became public via a leak to the BBC in 2021, four years after the Grenfell Tower fire.

Dr Debbie Smith gave evidence to the inquiry this week

Phase one of the inquiry has already established that the ACM panels used on Grenfell, manufactured by global conglomerate Arconic, were the "primary cause" of the fire's rapid spread across the building's facade.

The BRE had been commissioned to carry out tests on a variety of different cladding systems, including polyethylene-cored ACM, following major facade fires at Knowsley Heights in 1991 and Garnock Court in 1999.

Eleven of the 14 systems tested failed, but the ACM was the worst performer despite meeting official "Class 0" requirements for use on high-rise buildings at the time.

In 2006, building codes guidance was tweaked to require external insulation and "filler material" to meet stricter "limited combustibility" fire standards.

UK risked becoming "dumping ground"

The government has argued that "filler material" here referred to the core of a cladding panel, but industry and experts have disputed that claim.

A year after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2018, the guidance was changed again to clarify that "Class 0" materials should not be used in external wall surfaces.

Yesterday, the inquiry saw evidence that the government was warned in 2002 and 2003 that the UK risked becoming a "dumping ground" for inferior construction products if it did not drop Class 0 and transition to tougher European standards.

The inquiry had previously seen a 2011 internal email from a France-based manager at Arconic acknowledging that the type of panel used on Grenfell "has a bad behaviour exposed to fire". The manager added that the manufacturer "can still work with national regulations who are not as restrictive".

Inquiry lead counsel Richard Millett described the 2001 ACM test as a "catastrophic escalation" of fire

In its current module, the inquiry is examining the role of the national government in the events leading up to the Grenfell Tower fire.

Delivering its opening statement to the module, the government apologised for failing to properly oversee the building inspector system, but did not acknowledge flaws with guidance or regulations.

The inquiry continues, with evidence from Anthony Burd, a former civil servant involved in fire safety.

The images are courtesy of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

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UK government could block developers that refuse to pay cladding costs from housing market

The UK government has threatened to block property developers who refuse to contribute towards the costs of fixing unsafe cladding from obtaining planning permission or building control sign-off.

It is the latest move by ministers to try to solve the so-called cladding scandal, which emerged in England after the Grenfell Tower fire and has left hundreds of thousands of flat owners facing huge bills to replace their building's facades.

The measures, which were introduced to parliament on Monday as amendments to the Building Safety Bill, would effectively prevent uncooperative homebuilders from building and selling homes.

Last month, UK housing secretary Michael Gove told the residential developer industry that it must agree to help meet the £4 billion estimated remaining cost of replacing dangerous cladding on buildings or face penalties, with a similar demand later made to construction product manufacturers.

With talks between the government and industry ongoing, the proposals put forward this week spell out the severe nature of those penalties.

Cap on leaseholder costs

If passed, the amendments would also give leaseholders legal protection from cladding and other fire safety costs above £15,000 in London and £10,000 in the rest of England.

Those capped costs would only fall on leaseholders if the new measures aimed at raising funds from developers and product manufacturers fail to raise the full £4 billion, and would include money already paid out over the last five years for interim safety provisions.

The government said this clause "will enshrine in law" its promise from last month that no leaseholder of a flat in a building taller than 11 metres will have to pay a penny to remove defective cladding, with the capped costs mostly expected to relate to other safety issues.

Some residents have previously been issued cladding remediation invoices for more than £100,000 by building owners.

"It is time to bring this scandal to an end, protect leaseholders and see the industry work together to deliver a solution," said Gove.

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Grenfell architect unaware of fire rules and cladding risk

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"We cannot allow those who do not take building safety seriously to build homes in the future, and for those not willing to play their part they must face consequences," he added. "We will take action to keep homes safe and to protect existing leaseholders from paying the price for bad development."

As well as the measures to block developers from the housing market, the amendments make it possible for courts to sue builders that have used shell company structures to dodge responsibility for cladding problems.

Cladding manufacturers prosecuted for selling defective products would also become subject to Cost Contribution Orders, forcing them to pay a share of the cost to remediate affected buildings.

Among other proposals in the package of amendments is a widening of the scope of the building safety levy, a tax on developer profits aimed at recouping some of the government's own costs of fixing the cladding crisis, with higher rates for companies refusing to make voluntary contributions.

Lords to debate proposals

The amendments would also require building owners or developers to pay to fix other historic safety issues besides cladding on their own blocks, in a bid to protect leaseholders from bills for problems uncovered while inspecting facades, such as missing fire breaks.

Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, which claimed 72 lives, the UK government has spent £5.1 billion fixing dangerous cladding on buildings taller than 18 metres.

The £4 billion it is hoping to raise from industry will pay for remediation work on buildings between 11 and 18 metres. No funding has been offered for buildings below 11 metres.

Introduced to parliament in July 2021, the Building Safety Bill is a huge piece of legislation that seeks to overhaul the regime for managing safety in high-rises and solve the issues that led to Grenfell.

The amendments introduced this week will be debated in the House of Lords on 21 February.

The top photo is by David Jones.

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Grenfell Tower set to be demolished over safety risks

The UK government has decided to demolish Grenfell Tower four years after a fatal fire tore through the block of flats in west London, following a report that states the building should be "deconstructed at the earliest possible opportunity".

Although the government has not officially announced the decision, ministers have decided that the burnt remains of the building will be "carefully taken down", according to The Sunday Times.

The news follows a letter to residents from the ministry of housing, communities and local government (MHCLG) earlier this year explaining that a decision would be made on the fate of the tower this summer.

In total 72 people lost their lives in the fire. Bereaved families have been told they can now expect a final decision later this month.

Deconstruction to commence "no later than May 2022"

The government's plan to demolish Grenfell Tower was informed by a safety report that it commissioned and published in May, reported The Sunday Times.

In the report, engineering consultancy Atkins said that the tower should be deconstructed as soon as possible.

"There is unanimous agreement and unambiguous advice from all the technical experts and engineers involved in the Grenfell project that the tower should not be propped for the medium to long-term but should be deconstructed at the earliest possible opportunity, with deconstruction commencing no later than May 2022," the report states.

"This advice is based on protecting the safety of those working in and living around the tower."

However, the government has previously assured the bereaved families that there will be no change to the tower before its fifth anniversary in June 2022.

Grenfell community "shocked" by plans

Grenfell Tower was ravaged by fire in the early hours of 14 June 2017. The fire was started by a malfunctioning fridge-freezer, but spread rapidly across the 67-metre-high block due to its flammable exterior cladding.

The tower continues to loom over the neighbourhood in North Kensington, shrouded in protective sheeting decorated with a green heart.

Its site has been under the control of the ministry of housing, communities and local government since 2018 after the police released the site as a crime scene. An official inquiry into the event is still ongoing after it was suspended last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The news of its pending demolition has caused an uproar among survivors and bereaved families. Grenfell United, the organisation that represents them, said it was "shocked" by the plans.

In a statement, the group said the Grenfell community accepted the removal of the tower, but that the demolition timeline should be decided by the "bereaved, survivors and the community, not the government".

It added that "fewer than 10 bereaved and survivors" have been consulted on the subject so far.

Marcio Gomes, a father of a stillborn baby that died as a result of the tragedy, described the situation as "inhumane and brutal".

"The future of the tower is the single most important thing for us in bring peace," he said.

Action group Grenfell Next of Kin, which represents 29 of the fire's victims, has previously suggested allowing the structure to be taken over by nature, inspired by the work of Italian architect Stefano Boeri and his vertical forests.

News follows another cladding fire

The news of Grenfell Tower's demolition comes after a fire broke out in a tower block Milan and engulfed its exterior cladding. The city's mayor Beppe Sala likened it to the Grenfell Tower fire in London. However, all of the residents who were in their apartments were safely evacuated.

The Grenfell Tower fire prompted a ban on all combustible cladding on buildings over 18 metres high in England and Wales. The ban prevents combustible material from being used on new residential buildings, schools, hospitals, care homes and student accommodation.

In February, UK housing secretary Robert Jenrick also announced a scheme for removing unsafe cladding from housing, with £3.5 billion allocated for affected high-rise buildings over six storeys tall.

However, the decision to only fund the removal of flammable cladding on housing over a certain height was described by The Royal Institute of Britsh Architects (RIBA) as "naive". RIBA fire safety expert Jane Duncan said she was "frankly shocked" by the lack of funds for lower buildings.

"Whilst additional funding to speed-up cladding remediation on residential buildings above 18 metres must be welcomed, I am frankly shocked by the Government's continued underestimation of the scale of our building safety crisis," said Duncan. "Fire does not discriminate by height."

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