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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
John Siddle

Thousands still living in death traps wrapped in same cladding as Grenfell Tower

Thousands of families are still living in death-trap high rises wrapped in the same deadly cladding as Grenfell Tower.

Nearly 500 buildings were found to be fitted with the highly flammable material soon after the inferno that killed 72 people on June 14, 2017.

Yet five years on, work to replace it is yet to be completed on 58 of them.

And 26 sites taller than 18 metres have not had even a panel removed.

Giles Grover, from End Our Cladding Scandal, said: “As usual, innocent victims are being made to suffer as developers continue to refuse to do the right thing.

Brunilda Musta lives in Premier House in Edgeware which has been shown to have similar cladding on it as Grenfell Tower, but there appear to be no plans in place to have it removed (Reach Commissioned/Steve Bainbridge)
Fire at Grenfell Tower in west London in which 72 people died (PA)

“Many have signed a Government pledge but what this actually means in terms of action on the ground to make buildings safe remains unclear for hundreds of thousands of people.

“Five years on from Grenfell, the Government and rogue developers must stop playing games with our lives.”

The cladding used to insulate Grenfell and other tower blocks is called Aluminium Composite Material – or ACM – and consists of plastic sandwiched between two very thin sheets of aluminium.

The Sunday People can today name and shame companies yet to set to start vital remediation work, some of them registered offshore.

They were identified on a Government red list of corporate entities “where remediation works have not started on at least one of their buildings”.

Premier House in Edgware (Reach Commissioned/Steve Bainbridge)

Among them is Betterpride Limited, which bought flats in Edgware, north London, shortly before Grenfell. Work to replace ACM has stalled over a funding row with the Government.

Rocquefort Properties Ltd, incorporated in Guernsey, forms part of a complex web of property companies.

Others on the list are Adriatic Land 5, Rockwell (FC100) Limited, HEB Apartments Limited, HEB Commercial Limited, Avon Ground Rents Limited and Tonenest Limited.

The Ministry of Housing said enforcement action had been taken against 65 landlords who refused to remove ACM.

Twenty-six cases of enforcement are against buildings yet to start remediation.

Despite the Building Safety Act becoming law in April, developers and the Government are still squabbling over who should pay, leaving leaseholders to potentially foot the bills.

'I'm scared.. there are too many false fire alarms'

Residents of a block of flats still covered with the same cladding that doomed Grenfell have told of their fear and anger.

Residents in 13-storey Premier House in Edgware, north London – about 12 miles from Grenfell – have no idea when the deadly material will be removed.

Brunilda Mista, 43, says she and her four daughters are scared every time the fire alarm goes off. She added: “The fire alarm goes off all the time, often false alarms. Nobody listens, no one cares. It’s very hard.”

Kamela Zyka, 25, a cleaner, lives with her six-year-old girl. She said: “I’ve been here for one year. I didn’t know about the cladding. I lived in temporary accommodation before and a friend found this flat and I just moved in. I’m scared. There’s too many false fire alarms and too many children in this building.”

One single mum, who lives on the top floor, bought her flat for £400,000 in 2016 and it is now unsellable.

She said: “We’re stuck. I’m very disappointed and angry. The freeholders are responsible for changing the cladding for the safety of everyone. There are so many families living here. They just ignore it, it’s very sad. I never thought cladding would be a problem, who would ever think of it.”

Another resident moved into her flat from Hong Kong 10 months ago and didn’t realise it was dangerous.

She said: “We worry about it because we know the cladding is important. I’m on the fourth floor so it might be more easy for me to leave but I don’t know how the other tenants on higher floors feel.”

Building owner Betterpride was approached for comment.

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