Shadow housing minister suggests ministers knew high-pressure laminate material used on student block was unsafe

Labour’s shadow housing minister has called on the government to order the immediate removal of all dangerous types of cladding fitted to buildings across the UK.

Fire rages at the new-build section of The Cube in Bolton

Source: Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service

Fire rages at the new-build section of The Cube in Bolton

Writing to housing secretary Robert Jenrick in the wake of last weekend’s fire at a student accommodation block in Bolton, Susan Jones said it “beggars belief that the government has left eight out of 10 buildings covered in the same deadly cladding”.

She wrote that her party had been warning the government for more than two years that the cladding situation was not limited to aluminium composite material (ACM), which proved so fatally catastrophic at the Grenfell tower in June 2017.

Jones suggested the government already knew about the problems with high-pressure laminate cladding covering the Cube student building in Bolton, which was gutted by fire last Saturday.

In her letter to Jenrick, she asked: “Can you corroborate what is indicated by planning documents, that the cladding on the block in Bolton is the same Trespa brand as the failed fire test shown to your department in November 2018?”

Jones also called for the government to commit to immediately ordering the removal of all cladding which fails the tests.

She demanded a deadline to be set for the removal of all ACM cladding, with guarantees that all flammable cladding be identified – along with the finding and removal of all flammable cladding from tower blocks – and a policy of “putting the safety of residents first”.

Jones also called on the government to communicate with residents about the types of materials used in their homes and to deal with “unscrupulous building owners” who passed on “extortionate bills for interim fire safety measures”.

The Fire Protection Association (FPA) has already called for the use of combustible materials on all buildings, regardless of height, to be banned.

Following the Bolton fire at the weekend the FPA argued that regulations should be based on risk and not be limited “to the mere height of a building”.

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