The BRE is in the process of testing how combinations of different types of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding panels with different types of insulation behave in a fire, DCLG secretary Sajid Javid told parliament at the end of last week.
The more extensive testing comes in the wake of limited combustibility tests on cladding from local authority and housing association tower blocks after the devastating Grenfell Tower fire.
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The 24-storey block in west London had been reclad in ACM panels filled with polyethylene. The speed at which the fire spread on the outside of the building has sparked fears about the fire risks in other similarly clad blocks.
In his statement Javid said: “We now believe that no more than 208 local authority and housing association residential blocks over 18 metres tall have been fitted with aluminium composite material cladding.
“189 of these have had cladding samples tested by the Building Research Establishment, they’ve been tested by proxy or they have already had taken their cladding down. None of them have passed the limited combustibility test.
“Samples from a further 12 towers have been submitted this week and they are now being tested.
“The BRE has yet to see samples from seven towers, all of them managed by housing associations. A month after the tests began, this is simply unacceptable.”
Javid said that the combined ACM panel/insulation testing had been instigated on the advice of the of the Independent Expert Advisory Panel on Building Safety:
“An Explanatory Note, setting out the process and the timetable for further advice, will be published very shortly.”
Results are expected this week.
