3-quarters of medium-rises use combustible material!
THREE-QUARTERS of cladding systems on new medium-rise buildings use combustible materials, data show.
Of 66 residential projects that used rainscreen cladding systems in blocks between 11m and 18m in height in 2019 and 2020, 51 are believed to have used combustible insulation.
These include 76 schools, 25 hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and older people’s homes, and 11 university buildings.
This comes despite a proposed government ban on the use of such materials in these buildings. A consultation on doing so closed in May last year, with no official response yet published.
The government recently announced that leaseholders in buildings in this height bracket would be forced to repay long-term loans to cover the removal of combustible cladding from their walls, rather than receive direct government funding.
Commons defeat leaves flat owners facing huge bills to fix cladding
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Halton MPs visit the Decks in Runcorn over cladding crisis | Runcorn and Widnes World
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Runcorn residents left sickened over cladding announcement Plans to force owners of flats covered in flammable cladding to pay to make their homes safe have left leaseholders feeling “sickened”. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced on Wednesday that the government would pay to take dangerous cladding off buildings more than 18m or six storeys high. But for those whose homes fall below that height, the government is only offering long-term loans to pay for the work. For residents of The Decks in Runcorn, where three of the six blocks are below 18m high, this will mean paying up to £50 per month more on top of already soaring insurance bills.
Fire at Runcorn flats adds to cladding fears of residents A small fire at a block of flats in Runcorn “could have been a lot worse” due to the building’s dangerous cladding, residents have said. One of the six blocks at The Decks was evacuated just after midday on Tuesday when a plastic tub melted onto a kitchen hob that had been accidentally left on. Firefighters reached The Decks within minutes of the alarm being sounded and were able to put the fire out before it became more serious. Nobody was harmed during the incident, but residents said the alarm had only added to their fears about living in the blocks which were deemed a fire hazard after their cladding was found to be highly flammable more than a year ago.