Blocks across London and rest of country found to have similar panels to those used in Grenfell Tower, worrying tenants

Camden said it will remove cladding similar to that which burned rapidly on Grenfell Tower from five of its blocks, and accused a contractor of fitting flammable materials below the standard requested.

The London borough was the first to say it will remove aluminium cladding from a high-rise on Thursday after Theresa May warned that “a number” of buildings around the country may be clad in combustible materials. By the end of the day councils reported that at least 25 buildings were fitted with aluminium composite cladding.

A block in Havering, in east London, is also having its cladding – not aluminium composite but the more fire-resistant cementitious board – tested as a precaution, while another in Plymouth will be placed under 24-hour fire safety checks. Nine blocks with the material were discovered in Salford. Across Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle councils have started reviews of privately owned apartment blocks.

Tests being carried out on 600 English tower blocks with cladding Read more

Camden

Georgia Gould, the council leader, said the outer cladding panels on five blocks in the borough were made up of aluminium panels with a polyethylene core of the kind believed to have helped the fire at Grenfell Tower to spread across the building.

They were fitted in 2006 as part of a £150m PFI deal by the same contractors which refurbished Grenfell: Rydon, the main contractor, and Harley Facades, the subcontractor. The architect was HTA Architects, whose chairman, Ben Derbyshire, will take over as president of the Royal Institute of British Architects in September.

Camden said: “We will be informing the contractor that we will be taking urgent legal advice.”



The move to strip the cladding from the buildings on Camden’s Chalcots estate came after they were independently tested by the Building Research Establishment after last week’s disaster, which is believed to have killed at least 79 people.

The council also pledged round-the-clock fire safety patrols on the estate’s corridors “to reassure residents and carry out enhanced fire safety checks” until the cladding had been removed.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Burnham Tower in Camden has some of its cladding removed. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

Tenants confronted with the news on Thursday said safety fears had been “very stressful”.

David Tusk, who had lived in one of the blocks since 1968, said: “When there was a fire here a few years ago it didn’t spread. But with the refurbishment they changed the windows and they don’t open fully they just tilt out so I don’t know how you could even jump out if you had to.”

Rosie Closier, 23, who is seven and a half months pregnant, said: “I live on the 12th floor and after Grenfell me and my partner worked out how we were going to get out if there was a fire. I have been very worried ever since the fire and I feel better now the cladding is coming off.”

Bob O’Toole, head of the residents’ association, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “There are about 20 to 30 council staff here at the moment on the estate [they are going] to all parts of the estate to inform residents. A lot of people are worried, because they all thought it was all safe. A lot of the residents are calling for thorough sprinkler systems to be put in, and fire alarms. We have no fire alarms.”

Gould said: “The panels that were fitted were not to the standard that we had commissioned. In light of this, we will be informing the contractor that we will be taking urgent legal advice.

“Camden council has decided it will immediately begin preparing to remove these external cladding panels from the five tower blocks on the Chalcots estate. Camden council will do whatever it takes to ensure our residents are reassured about the safety of their homes.”

Residents were told the works were likely to start in around six weeks.

However, the council said the insulation used “significantly differs” from that on Grenfell Tower because it included “fire-resistant Rockwool insulation designed to prevent the spread of fire and fire-resistant sealant between floors, designed to stop a high-intensity flat fire from spreading to neighbouring flats”.

The council said this arrangement previously contained a fire at a flat in Taplow block in 2012.

Rydon, Harley Facades and HTA Architects have yet to respond to requests for comment.

Salford

Nine tower blocks in Salford use similar cladding as that on Grenfell Tower, Salford city council has confirmed. The recently refurbished buildings near the Salford Lad’s Club in Pendleton use aluminium composite material (ACM).

A council spokesman said samples of the cladding had been sent to the Department for Communities and Local Government to check whether they were combustible but that it had not yet received the results.

The buildings are owned by the council but managed by Pendleton Together, which said it had commissioned a team of independent safety experts to review the cladding.

Extended patrols of the buildings would be introduced as a “precautionary safety measure” and to provide reassurance to residents, the company said.

Pendleton Together said in a statement: “We are aware that our residents are asking a number of questions about the cladding used to refurbish the Pendleton blocks. We appreciate that this is obviously a matter of real concern to Pendleton residents and their families.

“The cladding used in Pendleton is Aluminium Composite Material (ACM). This was fitted correctly to the manufacturer’s specification and certified by an independent expert.

“We can confirm that all Fire Risk Assessments for the Pendleton blocks are up to date and to reassure our residents on Friday of last week (16 June) we announced an independent review. This review will examine the refurbishment work and our ongoing safety practices and will be undertaken by independent safety experts.”

Play Video 1:00 Salford tower block resident shocked that cladding on his building same as Grenfell tower – video

Barnet

In north London, Barnet council has written to residents in three towers which inspections on Monday revealed were clad in the same aluminium sandwich panels believed to have been used at Grenfell Tower.

Granville Point, Harpenmead Point and Templemead Point all have the Reynobond PE panels that were supplied to the Grenfell Tower refurbishment project.

The council has sought to reassure residents in a letter that while the panels are the same, “crucially it uses different insulation materials, which are made from a non-combustible mineral fibre material”.

Granville Point resident Ron Ekundayo, 60, said the letter did not “alleviate fears” over the similarities with Grenfell.

“I’m more concerned now with them making sure the cladding will not result in another Grenfell,” he said. “Grenfell was so heartbreaking. I’m a parent, I can imagine what it’s like to be trapped with children in your flat.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Grenfell Tower. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

He was also concerned by the lack of a sprinkler system in communal areas. “I will only be reassured when we have sprinklers on all the floors,” he said.

A 63-year-old man, who asked not to be named, said: “Now I’ve heard Camden is removing the cladding, I would expect Barnet to do no less.”

The council leader, Richard Cornelius, said: “To ensure such a tragedy is not repeated in Barnet, we have a responsibility to our community to make sure that safety systems are of the highest standard – including investigating whether sprinklers would be appropriate in our high-rise tower blocks. We will be calling on our housing committee to oversee a programme of investment, based on advice from the London fire brigade, to provide added safety and reassurance to our residents. If sprinklers are needed, they will be fitted.”

Haringey

In Tottenham, north London, Newlon Housing Trust has discovered the same panels as used on Grenfell Tower were used on its Rivers Apartments complex and is carrying out tests. The shared ownership block was built just two years ago and is clad in Reynobond PE.



A notice to residents from the trust in the entrance to the block said: “We want to let you know that we are carrying out an immediate review of the exterior cladding at Rivers Apartments, including an assessment by an independent fire safety expert. In the meantime we will have an extra concierge on patrol at all times.”

Newlon held drop-in sessions for concerned residents at a nearby primary school on Monday and Tuesday.

“We are in the process of completing a full safety audit of the building with the London fire brigade,” a spokesman said. “This is currently under way and should finish shortly.”

Plymouth

Three residential tower blocks have been found to be clad in a similar material to that used on Grenfell Tower. The Lynher, Tamar and Tavy buildings – collectively known as the Mount Wise Towers – were clad in aluminium with a polyethylene core.

John Clark, chief executive of Plymouth Community Homes, said in a statement that panels from the buildings had been tested earlier this week and were found to have the lowest possible fire safety rating. He said security teams would provide 24/7 monitoring of the blocks in light of the discovery.

Newham

In the east London borough the council identified three residential towers using an aluminium composite material in their cladding, which has been sent for testing. They include Ferrier Point.

“We will take every action necessary,” a spokeswoman said.

Wandsworth

In the south London borough samples of cladding from three tower blocks were being sent to the Department for Communities and Local Government for testing. ACM cladding was used on Sudbury House and Weybridge Point, as well as on Castlemaine Tower, a project involving the same firm that provided the cladding for Grenfell Tower.

The council said fires had previously occurred at both Castlemaine and Sudbury, but both had been successfully contained and had not spread.

Manchester, Liverpool, York



Manchester city council said it was still working to establish whether any of its tower blocks used flammable cladding. Liverpool, which does not own any tower blocks, said it was still investigating whether privately owned high-rises in the city had the cladding. York said it did not have any tower blocks.

Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Sunderland, Nottingham

All these city councils confirmed that none of their high-rise blocks had cladding like that on Grenfell Tower. All six said they did not yet know about privately owned buildings in their areas.

Both Birmingham and Nottingham said that it would be up to private tower block owners to carry out their own checks.

Oxford

Oxford council said it had five tower blocks but was satisfied they were safe, having been recently refurbished with improved fire safety and with fire retardant cladding.

Scotland

The Holyrood government has said no publicly-owned high-rise blocks in Scotland use the aluminium composite cladding implicated in the Grenfell Tower disaster, after checks were carried out by all 32 councils in Scotland.



Scottish ministers have set up a new working group chaired by Angela Constance, the Scottish communities secretary, to review building and fire regulations with the fire brigade, building standards and housing officials.

Constance said: “Scottish building regulations state that cladding on high-rise domestic buildings built since 2005, and cladding added to existing high rise domestic buildings since 2005, should be made of non-combustible materials or a cladding system that has met stringent fire tests.

“External cladding on high-rise domestic buildings built before 2005 has to meet a Class 0 classification which was the most demanding anti-flame spread classification at that time.

“We have confirmation from all local authorities that aluminium composite material has not been used in the cladding of their high rise domestic buildings. We are working intensively with local authorities to complete the picture for all high-rise domestic buildings, including those that are privately owned, as quickly as possible.”

• This article was amended on 23 June 2017. An earlier version said a tower block in Havering would also have its cladding removed. This has been changed to say the cladding, which is not an aluminium composite but the more fire-resistant cementitious board, will be tested as a precaution.

