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Govt to pay for removal of high rise cladding

17 replies

chocolategivesmehives · 09/05/2019 11:05

Happy to hear this, so that dangerous building cladding is removed ASAP, hopefully giving residents peace of mind.

However, think that the government should then claw the expense back from freeholders to stop tax payers effectively subsidising millionaires and venture capitalists.

OP posts:
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GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 13/05/2019 08:59

It's not the 'government' who's going to fund it - it's the poor old taxpayer, because apparently the developers/freeholders 'won't agree to'.
Why the hell don't they compel them to?
I dare say they're mates of someone in power who also has a vested interest in not seeing profits/dividends slashed.

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Kazzyhoward · 14/05/2019 18:51

Fair enough that taxpayers pay for the replacement, but there should be some claw back from the owners/freeholders, or at least a charge on the properties to be recovered upon eventual sale (just like the charge on people's homes when they go into care to cover funding). It certainly shouldn't just be a "gift".

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slipperywhensparticus · 14/05/2019 18:54

It needs to be done asap but there needs to be a charge put against the building to recoup the cost why wont people cough up to save there own lives,?

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Kpo58 · 15/05/2019 03:24

Probably because not everyone has the money to cough up. Can you find £10k at short notice on a low or medium income?

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cupofteaandcake · 16/05/2019 22:03

Buildings are approved and signed off by building control. Anyone applying for and building a new building or renovating an existing building has to comply to standards set by the government. Council building control will have approved and signed off this cladding, if it is now deemed not appropriate for the job then they have failed in their duty and should cover costs regardless if this is a private build or social/council housing.

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HelenaDove · 17/05/2019 00:26

Not everyone can afford to and they didnt choose to have the cladding. They were forced into having it put on the building.
Soooooooooooo the NHS hospitals and schools that have this cladding on the building should cough up as well then slippery.

@cupofteaandcake i agree with you.

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HelenaDove · 17/05/2019 00:31

Hey perhaps the parents should cough up You know to save their own childrens lives.

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HelenaDove · 17/05/2019 01:00

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/cladding-stripped-elderly-peoples-tower-16032189


And yet this developer is going to do the work on the Chalcots estate.

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Xenia · 17/05/2019 08:39

Are we even sure all the cladding is dangerous? I thought the issue was more about how it was attached eg if it did not have a block between cladding and wall which stopped fire travelling up behind the cladding then there was a problem and separately I thought if there were sprinklers inside then the cladding was not an issue.

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MenuPlant · 17/05/2019 08:49

At the time I think they said that the fire tests on the cladding had been fiddled/ or that it was inappropriate / dangerous (do we know for sure yet),.

In which case the manufacturers/ testing companies / people who recommended our installed cladding they knew to be inappropriate should be footing the bills.

As ever the taxpayer foots the bill when private sector fucks up I am sick of it. I think the companies involved in manufacturing /recommending etc the grenfell cladding just immediately closed down ffs.

If the landlords were fitting something sold as fit for purpose, with fiddled tests, or was fitted incorrectly etc then it should be on the manufacturer etc whoever s responsible to foot the bill.

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Kazzyhoward · 17/05/2019 19:34

Are we even sure all the cladding is dangerous? I thought the issue was more about how it was attached

Grenfell was also pretty unique in it's structure that had no "natural" firebreaks, i.e. each face was flat and to make things worse, it had those triangular pillars which clearly helped spread the fire. When you look at other tower blocks, many have "breaks" such as whole areas (top to bottom) with bricks (unclad), balconies, indents, etc that would naturally act to prohibit fire spread.

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HelenaDove · 22/05/2019 00:58

//www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ministers-failed-learn-grenfell-after-16177676

Ministers 'failed to learn from Grenfell' after fire service 'lottery' revealed

Some stretched fire services can only send two engines to a high-rise fire

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HelenaDove · 26/05/2019 16:34

camdennewjournal.com/article/chalcots-residents-fear-more-work-on-crisis-hit-estate-will-take-toll-on-their-health

Chalcots residents fear more work on crisis-hit estate will take toll on their health

Invasive programme of work for tower blocks



HUNDREDS of residents have been told their walls are to be knocked down during a disruptive and invasive programme of works on the crisis-hit Chalcots estate



Mock-ups of new windows and cladding panels due to be installed in the five blocks in Adelaide Road by June 2021 were put on display at the Swiss Cottage Library on Tuesday. Construction workers are expected to go into each of the 800 flats for several days at a time while walls are knocked down, new radiators fitted and electrics rerouted.

The council has told residents they will start entering flats from June 1 to assess their needs and make inspections


Several residents, who were evacuated during unprecedented scenes in 2017 after a fire safety inspection in the wake of the Grenfell disaster in 2017, say the prospect of more disruption is making them anxious and depressed.

Debbie Cooke, who lives in Taplow, said: “My biggest problem is the serious disruption – how long it’s going to be, and how it’s going to make me feel? I don’t know I can put up with this work, I really don’t. I have an issue with mess. I suffer spinal problems, depression.”

She added: “I believe they are going to be coming four to five foot into the flat, and putting up sheeting. This is absolutely disgusting, it is absolutely outrageous how they want us to live. When they came in with the fire-stopping, it made me quite ill. I like my flat. If they couldn’t do the fire-stopping right, how are they going to get such a big thing like this right?”

Residents said they had not received answers to questions about whether they will be compensated for new flooring, wallpaper and curtains. There are also questions about whether the current windows in the estate are in breach of building regulations.

The council says they must put new windows in with lowered sills because of safety concerns, warning that small children could topple out of the windows as they are. But this means radiators and wiring have to be moved and entire walls need to be replaced



The low sill design is a blend of two options consulted on earlier this year by Camden Council.

It is different to the design residents of the five blocks in Adelaide Road said they voted for in their own survey. Belsize ward Lib Dem Councillor Tom Simon has said the design is “the wrong decision made on faulty reasoning”, adding: “The way it has been made is an act of extremely bad faith with the residents of the Chalcots, who will now face further major upheavals to their lives because of this change, which they have never even been asked about.”

The council boards at the library said scaffolding would start going up in September, and works are due to come to an end in the five blocks by June 2021. Questions from residents were left on Post-it notes were on a board fixed to the wall. One said: “I’ve been here for 20 minutes and no one has spoken to me.” Another added: “My friend left three questions on the board. Why are they not here?”

Councillor Meric Apak, cabinet member for better homes, said: “We appreciate that Chalcots residents have experienced a lot of building works in the last few years and the disruption that comes with this. We will work with residents closely to minimise the impact of future works as much as possible.”

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HelenaDove · 26/05/2019 20:31

//www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48387380

Fire safety experts warn many of the 1,700 buildings identified as "at risk" in England are likely to fail new tests into cladding and building materials.

Hospitals, schools, nursing homes and tower blocks are among buildings which could be under threat, BBC 5 live Investigates has learned.

The government said it will monitor the test results this summer to decide if any immediate action needs to be taken.

It comes almost two years after 72 people died in the Grenfell Tower fire.

A public inquiry into the fire, which happened in west London in June 2017. heard evidence to support the theory that the highly combustible material in the cladding was the primary cause of the fire's spread.

It took minutes for the fire to race up the exterior of the building, and spread to all four sides.

The government has set up a fund to remove cladding from buildings identified with aluminium composite material (ACM) - the same type used on Grenfell Tower. The new tests, which began last month, are testing other types of cladding and building materials

One type of cladding, known as High Pressure Laminate (HPL) is believed to be of particular concern. The research group Building Research Establishment said that none of the cladding systems that had passed a standard BS 8414 safety test included an HPL.

Another study, released in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, found that HPL cladding materials released heat 25 times faster and released 115 times more heat than non-combustible products.



The government says that it recognises concerns about HPL and included them in the new fire safety tests.

Chartered engineer Dr Jonathan Evans was part of the team testing cladding for the government after the Grenfell Tower fire.

He said some of the tests were almost certain to fail and is calling for transparency around the results of the tests when they are released.

In December, the government introduced new fire safety regulations in response to Dame Judith Hackitt's independent review following the Grenfell Tower fire.

The regulations banned combustible materials from the external walls of new buildings over 59 feet tall.

There have since been calls from Clive Betts, the chairman of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee (HCLG), for these regulations to be applied to all new buildings, regardless of height.

He added that materials deemed too dangerous for new buildings should not be permitted for existing ones.

A spokesperson for the government's Ministry of Housing, which ordered the tests, said: "We issued an advice notice on non-ACM cladding systems, reiterating the clearest way to ensure fire safety is to remove unsafe materials."

To find out more listen to 5 Live Investigates on Sunday at 11:00 GMT or afterwards on BBC Sounds.

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HelenaDove · 16/06/2019 20:37
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