A London council has warned of a potential new national fire safety crisis after it discovered hundreds of low-rise timber-frame homes had been fitted with plastic cladding that can spread fire.
Barnet council has alerted the government and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, that other homeowners in similar properties across the country could be affected. It said the 580 homes that needed fixing in its area were “the tip of the iceberg”.
A row of such homes in Moss Hall Grove in Finchley was destroyed in June when a fire spread rapidly across the terrace, gutting the properties. Eight people escaped unhurt and 30 were evacuated from the surrounding area.
The council has since found more homes with similar UPVC panels that were also not built with measures to stop the spread of fire. The one- and two-storey homes were built with timber frames from the 1930s to the 1960s but were retrofitted with UPVC cladding panels in the 1980s.
Others have timber cladding, timber frames and inadequate fire compartmentation.
The repair bill is estimated at close to £17m, of which £3.6m will be borne by the taxpayer to fix council houses. Works will start next month.
The council has told occupiers “that whilst their homes contain a significant hazard, there is no imminent risk”.
“We believe the 580 affected homes in Barnet are just the tip of the iceberg across the country,” said Ross Houston, the council’s deputy leader. “We’re sharing details with other local authorities and DLUHC [the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities] as clearly there is need for a national plan to raise awareness and work out how best to support homeowners.”
The potential new danger comes amid a continuing cladding crisis affecting tall apartment blocks found to be clad in combustible panels and insulation in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, which claimed 72 lives in June 2017. So far the government, social landlords and private developers have allocated £11.8bn to fix the problems.
Nearly 4,000 buildings over 11 metres in height in England have been identified with unsafe cladding, the latest government figures show. Only a fifth have been fully fixed, while works are under way on another fifth. About 80% of the buildings with the highly combustible Grenfell-style aluminium composite material cladding have been fixed.
The latest development could increase costs, further squeezing budgets for building much-needed social housing or repairing substandard homes.
The Local Government Association, which represents town hall leaders in England, said councils would “look to identify whether they have timber-framed buildings of which external wall and cladding materials pose a particular risk”.
Darren Rodwell, the building safety spokesperson for the LGA, said: “In light of other recent fires, it’s clear the government cannot risk any further delay … the government should provide guidance to all owners, so they are aware of where they need to take action. The government should also make funding available to remediate problems where they are found so the cost of these works do not end up putting more pressure on already stretched council budgets.”
The London fire brigade said its borough commander for the Barnet area had been involved in discussions over the issue.
A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the government was engaging closely with Barnet on the steps they were taking.
“The building safety regulator is aware and is keeping the situation under review,” they added. “We will continue to liaise with the BSR and local authorities as appropriate to determine whether further action is necessary.”
Officials said less than 4% of England’s housing stock was postwar timber framed construction, based on the 2020-21 English Housing Survey.
