Formal opening of Public Inquiry into Grenfell Tower announced

Latest News Wed, Sep 6, 2017 8:14 AM

Sir Martin Moore-Bick will provide an opening statement to set out the approach to the Public Inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire and how it will operate on September 14 at The Connaught Rooms in London.

The inquiry has been set up by the Government following the fire that swept through the high-rise residential tower three months ago.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has also provided an update to the House of Commons on the government response to Grenfell Tower.

Over the summer the Prime Minister and senior ministers have been meeting with the people of north Kensington to make sure that their concerns are being listened to and, more importantly, acted upon, he said. As a result, the Grenfell Recovery Taskforce has been appointed and started work.

The process of removing control of properties from the tenant management organisation has begun.

Mr Javid also gave more details of the review into building regulations for high-rises announced during the summer and progress of fire safety testing being carried out by BRE.

"Of course, the issues raised by Grenfell extend well beyond Kensington," he told MPs. "Across England there are 173 social housing buildings that are over 18 metres tall and clad with some form of aluminium composite material, or ACM.

"In July, the Building Research Establishment began a series of large-scale fire safety tests on ACM cladding systems, comprising both the visible cladding and the internal insulation.

"The aim was to establish whether each system, when properly fitted, complied with the relevant Building Regulations guidance, BR135. Three of the seven cladding systems that were tested were found to meet the criteria set out in BR135. The other four fell short of what was required.

"The cladding systems that passed the test are in use on eight social housing towers. Systems that failed are in use on 165. The owners of affected buildings have been given detailed advice drawn up by our independent expert advisory panel. This covers steps to ensure the safety of residents including, where necessary, removal of cladding.

"While 89 private buildings in England have tested their cladding through those facilities, I continue to urge all private owners of similar blocks to submit samples for testing.

"I have also asked housing authorities to ensure the same steps are taken for all private sector residential tower blocks in their areas and to collect the data so that we understand the scale of the issue and we can track the remedial action.

"Inspections carried out since the fire have also highlighted other safety issues related to building design. For example, structural engineers studying Southwark’s Ledbury Estate said that strengthening work may be needed on blocks constructed using the concrete panel system that, in 1968, failed with devastating effect at Ronan Point.

"They also raised concerns about cracks that appeared cosmetic but could compromise fire-safety compartmentation.

"Separately, the British Board of Agrément has told us that, based on their investigations following incidents in Glasgow, some cladding systems may be designed and installed in such a way that they could fail in strong winds. We’re not aware of any injuries caused by this kind of failure.

"However, we are taking advice from the independent expert panel and have written to building control bodies to draw their attention to the issues that have been raised.

"The wider issues of competence and certification will also feed into Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building safety, the terms of reference for which were announced last week.

"Finally, I have also established an Industry Response Group, which will help the sectors required to improve building safety and to coordinate their efforts."

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