1. Remedial Action for High-rise Buildings Sir Ken Knight
8 May 2019 Chief Fire Officers’ Association

2. The Building Safety Programme aims to make buildings safe and ensure that residents feel safe, now and in the future. It has four stages.
Identify unsafe buildings
Make buildings safe
Identify system problems
Fix the system
Supported by: Expert Panel; Industry Response Group; Independent Review.
Separately, there is an independent Judge-led Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry and a Police investigation.

3. Advisory Groups and relevant Stakeholder Groups
Independent Expert Advisory Panel
Sir Ken Knight, Ann Bentley - Rider Levett Bucknall, Roy Wilsher – NFCC, Colin Bailey- Queen Mary University of London
Advise on immediate safety action in high rise buildings following Grenfell fire
Immediate fire safety mitigation advice
Testing of cladding systems
Advice to building owners and government
Provide advice on fire doors
Provide advice on non- ACM cladding
Industry Response Group
Construction Industry Council, BuildUK & Construction Products Association, London Government Association etc.
Advise on possible solutions to ensure homes, offices and public buildings are safe
Advise on better ways of building and methods of construction
Coordinate government-industry communications
Advise government on capacity and capability of supply chains
Review of Building Regulations & Fire Safety
Dame Judith Hackitt
Assessing the effectiveness of current building and fire safety regulations with a specific focus on multi occupancy high rise residential buildings
Ensuring the regulatory system is sufficiently robust for the future and make recommendations
The final Hackitt Review was published in May 2018.
Consultation in progress, awaiting government response
Coroner’s Inquest
Dr Fiona Wilcox
Who died and how?
Grenfell Tower Met Police
Investigation
What happened, has anybody broken the law?
Grenfell Tower Inquiry
Sir Martin Moore-Bick
How did this incident happen - can we stop it happening again

4. Fire safety has improved in recent years
1261
All dwelling fires down 21% since 2009/10
Fires in high rise flats down 43% since 2009/10

5. IDENTIFYING BUILDINGS THAT ARE UNSAFE
We have been identifying unsafe buildings and know the extent of the cladding issues in social housing. In total we are aware of 434 buildings with ACM cladding that is unlikely to meet current Buildings Regulations guidance.
The first strand of the programme begun immediately following the tragic fire.
It is focussed on identifying the high rise residential buildings with unsafe cladding systems through data collection and testing at BRE.
We have identified 158 social housing buildings and 9 publicly-owned buildings that are clad in ACM of the type that failed the fire safety tests.
We have also been working with local authorities to establish the picture for privately owned buildings. Through this work we have identified 266 private sector buildings, of which 176 are private residential, 31 are hotels and 60 are student accommodation. (As of 31 March 2019 data release)
Picture: wikipedia 5

6. MAKING BUILDINGS SAFE To make buildings safe we have issued advice to
building owners after 7 large scale system tests and are working with industry to support remedial action
The second strand of the programme is focused on making buildings safe. We continue to track and report on remedial work, identify whether there are any constraints to delivery of the work and share information to prompt forward thinking when building owners are planning, procuring and delivering the work.
To guide owners of high rise buildings through the process of remediation, we have published a flow chart and information note. This builds on the consolidated advice issued on 5 September 2017 after completion of the large scale tests.
An Industry Response Group (IRG) made up of representatives from the construction industry will help coordinate the construction industry’s response to the challenges.
We have also published advice notes on broader building safety issues, on Large Panel System buildings, on fire doors, on potential degradation issues with external wall render and brick-slip cladding and uncertainty amongst building owners about other (non-ACM) types of cladding
Following each of the 7 large scale system tests with ACM advice was sent to building owners and a consolidated set of advice was issued on 5 September.
The Expert Panel’s advice is that ACM with an unmodified polyethylene filler with any type of insulation presents a significant hazard on buildings over 18m.
It is possible ACM with a fire retardant filler could be used safely with non-combustible insulation (eg stone wool), but this is highly dependent on the insulation used, and how it is fitted.
So the key message is that building owners should take their own professional advice on any further action, reflecting their own particular circumstances.
It is of course the case that ACM with a limited combustibility filler can be used safely, although this is also dependent on how it is fitted.
Working with an Industry Response Group we aim to identify industry constraints, suggest a delivery approach across all identified building owners, and develop papers for building owners and industry to raise awareness and prompt forward thinking when they are procuring, planning and delivering their remedial work
In December, we published an information note on the key questions building owners may need to consider as they undertake remedial work on ACM clad buildings.
We have also published two advice notes on broader building safety issues
What building owners should do to seek advice, assess and mitigate potential risks if they are concerned about the fire safety of external wall systems that do not incorporate ACM systems.
How building owners with External Wall Insulation systems with a render or brick slip finish should assess the risk and the importance of their appropriate design, installation and maintenance. This advice has also been developed with the Standing Committee on Structural Safety.

7. Identifying unsafe buildings: What have we found?
Testing at the Building Research Establishment and investigation by local authorities has identified 434 buildings over 18 metres tall which have ACM cladding systems that represent a fire hazard:
Data as of 31 March 2019

8. Making buildings safe: Progress with ACM remediation
Data as of 31 March 2019

9. Identifying system problems: Key steps
Widespread use of ACM cladding which is not compliant with building regulations raises concerns not just for existing buildings but for the future. How did this happen? How can we stop it happening in future?
The Metropolitan Police-led investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire and the Public Inquiry will look at what happened and throw up lessons for the future.
Dame Judith Hackitt was asked in July to conduct an urgent, independent review of building regulations and fire safety and to make recommendations to Government, with an interim report before Christmas 2017 and a final report by Spring 2018.

10. Identifying unsafe buildings: What else have we found?
Potential structural issues with Large Panel System buildings.
Potential degradation issues with external wall render and brick-slip cladding and uncertainty amongst building owners about other types of cladding.
Defects in basic fire safety measures in some buildings.
Failures in composite fire doors to meet 30 minute fire test standards.

11. Hackitt interim and final reports
Fixing the system:
Hackitt interim and final reports
‘Building a Safer Future’ identifies system failure: ignorance, indifference, lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities, inadequate regulatory oversight and enforcement tools. A “race to the bottom”.
Final report makes 53 recommendations for:
A new regulatory framework on higher risk residential buildings
Improved safety during design, construction, refurbishment and occupation
A stronger resident voice in the system
Improved levels of competence
Greater industry ownership of guidance
A more robust and transparent construction products regime
A golden thread of information
Tackling poor procurement practices
Continuous improvement and best practice learning.

12. Action taken and next steps
Fixing the system:
Action taken and next steps
Government response to ‘Building a Safer Future’ on 17 May 2018 welcomed review, agreed with the assessment, supported the principles behind the recommendations and committed to legislating for a new regulatory framework.
Views invited on recommendations by end of July.
Consulted on desk top studies.
Consulted on banning combustible materials in high-rise cladding systems.
Consulting on clarified building regulations fire safety guidance (ADB).
Confirmed there will be a wider technical review of ADB in the autumn.
Working with industry to make all approved documents more user- friendly.
Social Housing Green Paper – proposes improvements to empower residents.
Launched an Early Adopters scheme.
Construction Industry Council leading work on competence.
Implementation plan in the autumn.
Public Inquiry recommendations and other learning in 2019 and beyond.

13. Competence
The Hackitt report established a lack of skills, knowledge and experience and a lack of any formal process for assuring the skills of those engaged at every stage of the life cycle of higher risk residential buildings as a major flaw in the current regulatory system. The report tasked professional and accreditation bodies to work together to propose a robust, comprehensive and coherent system covering all disciplines for work on HRRBs.
The Steering Group on Competences for Building a Safer Future is a sub-group of the Industry Response Group, which was set up by the Government in response to Grenfell.
The Steering Group is formed of organisations spanning the construction and fire sectors, to take forward the recommendations on competence in Building a Safer Future.
The Steering Group is formed of 12 working groups,11 reflecting a work stream set out in the Hackitt review (e.g. installers, fire engineers, architects) as well as an additional group on procurement.
The Steering Group meets fortnightly and makes quarterly reports on progress to MHCLG, via the IRG.

14. Any questions?
All of our advice is on the web at
Picture credit: High Rise Building icons by Ralf Schmitzer