Samples are being taken of the cladding used on three high-rise blocks within Barnet borough by specialists using abseiling equipment.
Two workers in helmets were seen dangling on climbing rope off the edge of Harpenmead Point, removing panels with drills. Similar samples are to be taken from neighbouring blocks Templewood Point and Granville Point.
Barnet council has written to residents of the three blocks to reassure them that certain components in the cladding, put in place in 2012, are different to those which were used on Grenfell Tower.
However, the council believes the rain-screen panels are similar to those used at Grenfell Tower. The government has said that “cladding using a composite aluminium panel with a polyethylene core would be non-compliant with current building regulations guidance. This material should not be used as a cladding on buildings over 18 metres.”
The letter to residents explains that specialists will be on site on Thursday collecting samples of the cladding.
Michael Dunleavy, 79, lives on the seventh floor of Granville Point and has lived in the building since 1985. He said he immediately contacted the council the day after the Grenfell fire to make sure the cladding on his building was safe.
“I do feel reassured by the letter, it says it’s not the same combustible material,” he said. “I’m getting on a bit. I’d struggle to get out of here quickly if there was a fire.”
Specialists using abseil equipment are removing samples of cladding from this tower block in Barnet, to be sent off for further testing. pic.twitter.com/Y3pxyhi6Jq
At least three tower blocks have been found to be covered with cladding of the type used at Grenfell Tower, the government has revealed. The combustible cladding is thought to have been responsible for the fire being so deadly and checks are urgently being carried out on buildings around the country to find out how many other buildings have it. Theresa May gave the preliminary findings when she provided a statement to MPs. Later the communities department said at least three tower blocks are covered in the flammable material. Downing Street said up to 600 tower blocks could be affected, but this figure was later retracted because it was based on a misunderstanding. (See 11.11am and 1.25pm.)
Camden council in London has announced it is removing cladding from five tower bocks because of concerns about the material used. (See 12.09pm.)
May has refused to back calls for the Conservative leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, Nicholas Paget-Brown, to resign over his authority’s botched response to the fire.The council’s chief executive, Nicholas Holgate, has resigned in response to pressure from Sajid Javid, the communities secretary. Asked if Paget-Brown should go too, May said it was a matter for the Tory group on the council. She later revealed that she had spoken to Paget-Brown herself. But, when asked if she told him he should quit, she just said she told him survivors needed better support.
May has said resources will be made available to ensure other tower blocks are made safe. But she was repeatedly challenged by Labour MPs who felt she was not giving a guarantee that central government would pay the full costs of any safety work councils want to carry out. In response to a question from Labour’s Rachel Reeves, she said:
The government is working with local authorities. We will ensure that any essential works that are necessary, in terms of remedial action for safety of these blocks in relation to fire, are taken. There will be different circumstances in different local authorities. We will ensure that the work can be undertaken.
Later, when challenged again by the Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft, who said May did not seem to be committing to fully funding the retrofitting of sprinklers and other measures, May said:
I have made it clear that where work is necessary, resources will be available to ensure that that work can be undertaken. But it is for the government to work with the local authorities to ensure that that takes place.
May said she would name the judge heading the Grenfell Tower inquiry within the next few days. She also said she wanted the judge to produce an interim report.
She said the fire service would make an announcement within the next 48 hours about whether the cladding on Grenfell Tower met safety regulations. MPs were surprised when May refused to say whether or not the material was used in accordance with safety rules, because on Sunday Philip Hammond, the chancellor, said the material was used illegally. (See 10.34am.) But then, when pressed on this, May said it was important for MPs not to say anything that might prejudice any prosecutions.
May said she did not believe that retrofitting sprinklers in tower blocks was always necessary. She said that “in not all cases will it be the case that the retrofitting of sprinklers is actually going to be the thing that makes the difference”.
She said immigration checks would not be imposed on Grenfell Tower survivors.
She said she had returned to Kensington last night for another meeting with survivors. But she did not reveal that, as this video shows, she was booed.
Jeremy Corbyn told MPs that the fire was “an outrage” and that all the deaths could have been avoided. Responding to May, he said:
At least 79 people are dead. It is both a tragedy and an outrage because every single one of those deaths could have been avoided.
The Grenfell Tower residents themselves had raised concerns about the lack of fire safety in their block.
The Grenfell action group had warned, and I quote, “It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell action group firmly believes that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation”.
The prime minister said ‘it is right that the CEO of Kensington and Chelsea has now resigned”. It may be, but why aren’t the political leaders taking responsibility too?
From Hillsborough, to the child sex abuse scandal, to Grenfell Tower the pattern is consistent. Working-class people’s voices are ignored, their concerns dismissed, by those in power.
Government withdraws claim that 600 tower blocks have Grenfell Tower-type cladding
The government has now clarified the line given out at the No 10 lobby briefing about 600 tower blocks having cladding similar to that used on Grenfell Tower. (See 11.53am.) The spokesperson used the word “similar”, but that was misleading. The government is now saying 600 is the figure for the number of tower blocks with cladding of some kind.
A communities department spokesman said:
The situation is that 600 buildings have cladding. It is not similar; it is all types of cladding. Of these 600, we want landlords to check if they have aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding. Of those 600, some of those would have ACM; we want to test them to see if they have ACM.
In the Commons (see 10.24am) the Labour MP David Lammy spoke about his friend Khadija Saye, a talented artist killed in the Grenfell Tower fire. Lammy has also been encouraging people to support the campaign to raise money for the Khadija Saye Memorial Fund, set up “to support young artists like Khadija to realise their potential”.
The London borough of Camden said it would immediately remove cladding from five tower blocks in the borough because it is similar to that which burned rapidly on Grenfell Tower.
Following independent testing of cladding on the Chalcots estate by the Building Research Establishment, the council leader, Georgia Gould,revealed the outer cladding panels on the blocks were also made up of aluminium panels with a polyethylene core.
Until the cladding is removed the council pledged round-the-clock fire safety patrols on the estate’s corridors “to reassure residents and carry out enhanced fire safety checks”.
“The panels that were fitted were not to the standard that we had commissioned,” said Gould. “In light of this, we will be informing the contractor that we will be taking urgent legal advice.” She continued:
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.
However, the council said the insulation used “significantly differs” from that on Grenfell Tower because it includes “fire-resistant rock wool 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.
Meanwhile Barnet council has written to residents in three towers which inspections on Monday revealed were clad in the same aluminium sandwich panels that are believed to have been used at Grenfell.
Granville Point, Harpenmead Point and Templemead Point all use the Reynobond PE panels – aluminium panels with a polyethylene core – which were supplied to the Grenfell Tower refurbishment project.
The council has sought to reassure residents that while the panels are the same, “crucially it uses different insulation materials, which are made from a non-combustible mineral fibre material”.
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.
In Newham, the council has identified three residential towers as using an aluminium composite material in its cladding which has been sent for testing. They include Ferrier Point. “We will take every action necessary,” a spokeswoman said.
Khan says government must consider rehousing people while combustible cladding removed
Matthew Weaver
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has called for residents in hundreds of tower blocks with flammable cladding to be rehoused immediately unless the government can reassure them that their homes are safe.
His comments came after the government confirmed that councils estimate that 600 high-rise buildings have similar flammable exterior cladding to that used on Grenfell Tower.
Khan said the figures confirm “people’s worst fears”.
In a statement he said:
There is now a huge amount of work to urgently do to ensure that it is safe for people to remain in properties affected. If not, the government must support people being rehoused immediately while cladding is being removed.
He also urged landlords to send cladding for testing. He added:
The government needs to ensure all resources necessary are made available to local authorities for the testing process, for checking those tower blocks and for rehousing local people in their local community.
Govt must ensure resources needed for testing tower blocks for combustible cladding & rehousing people locally are urgently made available. pic.twitter.com/rrEVW00zcx
Khan also called for an interim report on the Grenfell Tower fire to be published this summer.
Sadiq Khan and wife Saadiya Khan leaving St Clements Church after a service in honour of those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA
Here is more on the latest No 10 statement about the prevalence of Grenfell Tower-type cladding. This is from the Press Association.
Hundreds of tower blocks in England could be covered in similar cladding to Grenfell Tower, councils have estimated.
So far tests have revealed that combustible cladding has been found on at least three tower blocks across the UK, the government has said.
But Downing Street said English councils estimated that 600 high-rise buildings used similar cladding to the block in west London which was the scene of tragedy last week ...
The Department for Communities and Local Government is coordinating the process and facilities allow for 100 samples a day to be tested.
A No 10 spokeswoman said: “So far, three samples have been found to be combustible.”
She added: “In terms of how many buildings and how many homes have this type of cladding, the estimate provided to us by councils is that there are approximately 600 high-rise buildings with similar cladding.
“We are in touch with all the local authorities to encourage them to urgently send us the samples and then we will carry out the checks that we need to see where we are with that.”
UPDATE AT 1.25PM: The government has now clarified the line given out at the Number 10 lobby briefing about 600 tower blocks having cladding similar to that used on Grenfell Tower. The spokesperson used the word “similar”, but that was misleading. The government is now saying 600 is the figure for the number of tower blocks with cladding of some kind.
A communities department spokesman said:
The situation is that 600 buildings have cladding. It is not similar, it is all types of cladding. Of these 600, we want landlords to check if they have aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding. Of those 600, some of those would have ACM; we want to test them to see if they have ACM.
The Liberal Democrats are demanding the resignation of Nicholas Paget-Brown, the Tory leader of Kensington and Chelsea council. Earlier Theresa May refused to back calls for Paget-Brown to go, even though the council chief executive has been forced out. (See 11.07am.) But the Lib Dem MP Tom Brake put out a statement saying:
The prime minister notes that the chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea has resigned, but what about the Conservative political leader? It was a political decision to stockpile huge cash reserves while apparently skimping on safety measures to protect disadvantaged members of the community.
No one is looking for a witch hunt, but if heads are starting to roll, they should be the right ones. There must be political accountability.
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