Grenfell Tower: 111 buildings fail new Government fire safety tests

'The tragedy at Grenfell Tower has clearly exposed a systemic failure of the current system of building regulation,' says Local Government Association

At least 80 people died in the blaze on 14 June (AFP)

More than 100 buildings have failed the latest round of Government combustibility testing in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.

At least 111 buildings did not pass the tests, with 90 of the buildings being local authority or housing association owned or managed, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

The results are the latest from a round of more robust checks after construction industry experts expressed concern over the 100 per cent failure rate of hundreds of samples tested in the weeks following the deadly blaze.

Serious questions were raised about the role of cladding fitted to Grenfell Tower in the spread of June's fire that killed at least 80 people.

But tests had previously been limited to the core of the panels and not the structure as a whole, which sources told The Independent would not form an accurate picture of how a building would react in a fire.

The latest checks are believed to offer a more accurate picture of fire safety by analysing different combinations of cladding and insulation to see how they react to fire together.

Last week, tests revealed 82 towers were not up to standard when subjected to the new rigorous methods.

Councillor Simon Blackburn, chairman of the Local Government Association's Safer and Stronger Communities board, said the results "exposed a systemic failure" in the system.

He urged the Government to move quicker to advise landlords on how to proceed.

"The tragedy at Grenfell Tower has clearly exposed a systemic failure of the current system of building regulation," he said.

"With these latest test fails affecting buildings owned by a range of different landlords across the country, the Government also needs to make sure there is capacity within the housebuilding industry to take quick action to carry out the scale of remedial work that looks likely to be needed."

It comes after the Government announced an independent review into building regulations and fire safety last week over concerns current building legislation is not fit for purpose.

The Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid, said the Government was “determined” to “learn the lessons from the Grenfell Tower fire”.

But Labour and fire safety experts said the review was “long overdue” and should have been carried out after cladding was implicated in the Lakanal House fire that killed six people.

The shadow housing minister, John Healey, said: “The long-awaited review of buildings regulations and fire safety is welcome but long overdue, as Ministers promised this four years ago after the last fatal high-rise fires.

“The Government must also now expand the testing programme, publish results in full so that residents and landlords know whether or not their buildings are safe and stand by their earlier promise to help fund the costs of any necessary work.”