In December 2007, an Irish building materials company called Kingspan tested the fire safety of one of its insulation materials, Kooltherm K15. It was tested on a rig mocked up like a building, to mimic how the product might be used in real life, with aluminium cladding panels on […]Click here to view original web…

Widely-used polystyrene insulation system shown to be ‘similar’ to Grenfell-style cladding in Australian fire test Grenfell Tower Inquiry diary week 22: ‘All we do is lie in here’ Kingspan issued legal threat to Twitter critic just hours after Grenfell fire Former Bank of England economist outlines proposal to fix […] Click here to view original…

Our constituents are facing huge remedial work bills of tens of thousands of pounds, writes Stephen McPartland MP and Royston Smith MP. | PA Images It is astonishing that leaseholders have been left to cover 100% of the costs to make buildings safe. This should be the government’s responsibility. […] Click here to view original…

Campaigners have designed a proposal to fund post-Grenfell cladding remediation through a system of levies and taxes following the provision of upfront funding for remediation work. Picture: Getty Sharelines Dean Buckner, a former Bank of England economist, outlined the proposal which has been developed for the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership […] Click here to view original…

Up to five per cent of private homes in England now believed to be unmortgageable due to fire safety problems Deepa Mistry and her partner Greg Longley (C) BBC – Photographer: Jordan Downer The pitfalls of shared ownership are under the spotlight in a BBC Panorama documentary, The Home […] Click here to view original…

Rebecca Penney is one of potentially thousands of private leaseholders who have been told that their properties are covered in combustible cladding. Understandably, she asks how did everyone get in this position and who really is responsible in the end for the necessary remedial works. Aside from Covid-19, this […] Click here to view original…

The council said the cladding, used in small areas for decorative features on balconies and as larger panels at East Village, Stratford, will be removed by the end of the year. Picture: Google Maps Grenfell-style flammable cladding will be stripped from tower blocks in the former Olympic Village by […] Click here to view original…

The Fire Safety Bill is currently working its way through parliament and will require all the fire safety provisions of a building, how they are managed, maintained and tested, to be detailed. But will the government’s new flagship law actually end up worsening the cladding crisis? Mary-Anne Bowring, founder […] Click here to view original…

Kingspan’s insulation boards were part of a cladding system that caught light during the Grenfell fire A building materials company criticised at the Grenfell Tower inquiry over misleading fire safety claims sits on a construction industry integrity group. Kingspan, whose K15 foam insulation was fitted on the London tower […] Click here to view original…

The Government has announced that owners of flats and buildings without cladding will no longer require an EWS1 form (an external wall fire review process) when selling or re-mortgaging their property. This will provide significant relief to the owners of such properties for whom the requirement for EWS1 has […] Click here to view original…

A cladding fire detection system that could offer a lifeline to thousands affected by the UK’s cladding crisis is undergoing a critical period of testing with one of the UK’s leading testing bodies, the Fire Protection Association. Darron and Ryan Brough Intelliclad, created by Darron Brough from Cannock and […] Click here to view original…

After questions from LBC, the Government has announced a ‘ £30m fund to help end the scandal of excessive waking watch costs’. Yesterday I broke the news that a staggering £12 million is being spent in London every single month on ‘waking watches,’ due to the on-going cladding crisis […] Click here to view original…