More than two-and-a-half years since the tragic North Kensington tower blaze which left 72 people dead and more than 70 injured, action on improving fire safety in other UK high rises has been painfully slow.
Government data on the number of buildings that remain clad in Aluminium Composite Material (ACM), the material used at Grenfell with disastrous consequences, paints a depressing picture.
There were about 450 other buildings clad in ACM at the time of the Grenfell Tower disaster in June 2017 — around two thirds of them in London. Since then, UK-wide, 127 towers have had cladding removed, assisted by a government funding pledge. The rest are still encased in the potentially unsafe cladding.
But ACM cladding is only a small part of the problem.
What other types of building material are considered dangerous?
It has slowly emerged since 2017 that other forms of cladding, widely used to embellish new buildings, are also potentially dangerous.
These include some types of timber cladding, and a product called High-Pressure Laminate (HPL).
Despite raising the alarm about these potentially combustible products the Government has declined to offer any financial assistance to help remove them.
This has left residents negotiating with developers, housing associations and managing agents to try to get their homes made safe — with very variable outcomes.
This is an extract from Homes & Property magazine, to view the full article please click on the link below.
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