Samples of external cladding from 95 buildings in 32 areas in England have failed fire-proofing tests, Downing Street has said, with Theresa May ordering a national investigation into what has gone wrong.
Every piece of cladding so far tested for fire resistance after the Grenfell Tower disaster has failed to meet the necessary standard, the prime minister’s spokesman said.
The communities secretary, Sajid Javid, updated ministers on Tuesday morning, giving them the latest figure of 95 buildings across 32 local authority areas, the spokesman said. “That remains a 100% failure rate.”
It is believed that all the tests so far have involved local authority-owned blocks, rather than private buildings.
He said: “The prime minister said there would need to be a major national investigation into what had gone wrong, when cladding which is failing the tests was fitted on buildings across the country over a number of decades.“Very clearly, these failures are concerning and this is why the prime minister said to cabinet this morning we need to have this major national investigation.”
This investigation could be a second element to the previously announced public inquiry into the Grenfell fire, which has claimed the lives of at least 79 people.
“As to the precise format that takes, it will obviously be determined as we go along,” the No 10 spokesman said. “The public inquiry could also, in a second phase, potentially look at the issue of the cladding and why it was fitted across the country over a number of years.
“What I am saying today is that it will definitely happen – that there will be a major investigation into how it happened.”
Earlier tests on cladding have resulted in hundreds of residents being evacuated from a high-rise estate in Camden, north London, after fire inspectors said the blocks were not safe.
May’s spokesman said it was not known whether any other buildings would need to be evacuated as there was a “particular set of circumstances” in Camden, where inspections also found hundreds of fire doors were missing.
“We haven’t seen that elsewhere yet,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a decision for councils, landlords and fire authorities as to do they believe they can put in sufficient measures to allow people to stay in their homes.”
Councils were being urged by the communities department to send samples as soon as they could, May’s spokesman said.
“The secretary of state said in the Commons yesterday afternoon that he wanted samples to be sent in urgently. Obviously, some councils have moved very quickly in terms of sending in their samples and we want everybody else to do so as soon as possible.”
Samples of cladding were also being sought from schools and hospitals.
The NHS has identified as many as 30 hospital trusts in England that have cladding made of material similar to that used on Grenfell Tower or about which there are other unresolved fire safety concerns.
Nine unnamed hospitals deemed to be at the greatest risk of fire as a result of their cladding, which were identified after all trusts filled in a questionnaire about their buildings, are now receiving support from the regulator NHS Improvement, the health service has reported. The hospitals are all understood to be high-rise buildings.
Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat’s health spokesman, demanded that the nine hospitals should be identified and remedial action taken at once.
“It is shocking to hear that hospitals as well as people’s homes may have been fitted with flammable material,” he said. “The government must clarify which hospitals are affected and what action is being taken to protect patients and NHS staff.”
Another 11 towers in Manchester owned by the One Manchester housing group have been found to be clad in combustible material, bringing the number for the landlord to 16.
The group said the buildings used non-flammable insulation but announced immediate works to remove the aluminium composite panels, starting on Tuesday.
“We have informed all of our residents in the 16 blocks affected and we are working very closely with them to provide reassurance,” said its chief executive, Dave Power. “Greater Manchester fire and rescue service will be visiting all 16 tower blocks today to undertake in-depth safety assessments.”
He added that he wanted to avoid evacuations such as those at Camden’s Chalcots estate, where some residents who left have started returning even though safety works have yet to start, including the replacement of hundreds of doors with fire-retardant alternatives.
“Twenty-four-hour security is now in operation in every tower block to provide a ‘wakeful watch’ to raise the alarm and manage the building evacuation in the event of a fire, which we hope will provide extra reassurance for our tenants,” Power said.
Questions over the government’s testing regime for aluminium composite panels continued to grow with one expert warning: “[It] doesn’t necessarily reflect what is going to happen on a building.”
The government has given limited information about how the tests on cladding samples are being carried out by the Building Research Establishment. The Department for Communities and Local Government said it was undertaking combustibility tests on core materials, but experts have warned that cladding systems also need to be tested as a whole, including insulation materials and design features such as fire breaks.
“You are testing a material in isolation,” said David Metcalfe, the head of the Centre for Window and Cladding Technology. “What we need to consider is how it performs as a system – it’s the cladding, it’s the support system, it’s the insulation, it’s the cavity barriers, it’s all of these things combined to determine what happens in a fire.”
It was also reported that an 11-storey building in the German city of Wuppertal was being evacuated because it had similar cladding to Grenfell.
The family of a five-year-old killed in the Grenfell blaze have said they will forever miss their “kind, energetic, generous little boy”.
Isaac Paulos, who lived with his family on the 18th floor, was found on the 13th. In a statement released by the Metropolitan police, his family said: “Isaac, our beloved son, was taken from us when he was only five years old.
“He was such a good boy who was loved by his friends and family. We will miss him for ever, but we know God is looking after him now and that he is safe in heaven.”
The number of displaced households in emergency accommodation has risen to 386, the Grenfell fire response team said.
It added that close to £1.7m had been handed to those affected by the blaze.
Home Office data released on Tuesday showed that the number of fire safety audits dropped by almost a fifth since 2009, although the number of checks on residential buildings taller than four storeys increased over the same period from 2,944 to 3,534.
These are routine, planned inspections where a fire-safety officer assesses the level of compliance with regulations.
The number of fires in high-rise purpose-built flats also fell by almost half in the years leading to the Grenfell disaster. Fire and rescue services attended 1,261 blazes in purpose-built high-rise flats in England in the 2009-10 financial year, compared with 714 in 2016-17 – a 43% decrease.