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Contractors undertake works at a residential property in Paddington, London, as part of a project to remove and replace non-compliant cladding (PA)
The government is set to unveil a multibillion pound package of funding for work to strip homes of unsafe cladding, it has been reported following concerns some leaseholders may be loaned the money needed to fix the issue.
The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, will address the Commons on Wednesday amid increasing pressure from his own party’s MPs over his department’s response to remove potentially hazardous coverings from buildings in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.
BBC News
By Tom Symonds
image copyrightPA Media
The company that made Grenfell Tower s cladding would by default sell flammable materials to construction projects, including high-rise buildings, a sales manager has said.
Deborah French told the public inquiry into the June 2017 west London blaze that Arconic could have sold a fire-retardant product.
But she said it saw the UK market as preferring a slightly cheaper version, albeit with a greater fire risk.
Seventy-two people died in the fire.
The first phase of the Grenfell Inquiry concluded that cladding put on the tower block during refurbishment fuelled the fire.
Statements from a series of Arconic managers shown to the inquiry on Tuesday said the UK was generally a PE market - PE referring to polyethylene, which is used as the core material of the panel and is highly flammable.
Deborah French, UK sales manager for US firm Arconic, told the Grenfell Inquiry on Tuesday that her induction involved a strong focus on sales but very limited technical specifics on the cladding.