Tall & Urban News

Tens of thousands of people are living in high-rise blocks with Grenfell Tower-style flammable cladding that need 24-hour fire patrols, it has been revealed.

An inquiry into the 2017 inferno in West London found that aluminum composite cladding was the main reason the blaze, which killed 72 people, spread so rapidly.

Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick concluded the panels’ polyethylene cores “melted and acted as a source of fuel.”

In March 2020, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced a £1 billion (US$1.2 billion) Building Safety Fund to help cover the costs of removing unsafe cladding from all private and social sector buildings over 18 meters tall.

But 40 of the fire authorities that responded to a freedom of information request revealed a total of at least 420 high-rise buildings are currently guarded by fire patrols because unsafe cladding has still not been removed.

They also said they had attended 300 fires at those blocks.

The National Fire Chiefs Council added that “We are concerned that dangerous cladding remains on many buildings.”

While some landlords and leaseholders are paying for these patrols, others are refusing to.

Rachael Loftus, who lives in a dangerous timber-clad building in Leeds, previously said leaseholders were forking out £3,840 (US$4,790) a week from the building’s sinking fund.

Residents say they are now facing crippling bills of £974 (US$1,210) each month, nearly seven times what they used to pay in management fees.

They are also braced for a huge rise in insurance costs.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry also found that plastic insulation behind the aluminum cladding probably helped the fire spread.

For more on this story, go to the Daily Mirror.