Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017, fire safety in our built environment has rightly been under significant scrutiny both in the UK and globally. As details surrounding the fire were gradually clarified, it became apparent that the building’s cladding system, comprising aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, combustible insulation, cavity barriers, etc., was a significant factor in how the fire spread so rapidly across the external walls of the building.
Due to the perceived risk in some high-rise buildings with ACM cladding, the government in England, through what was then the Department for Communities and Local Government’s (now the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG)) Building Safety Programme, ordered testing of ACM cladding samples taken from high rise residential buildings. It was later revealed that at least 455 buildings over 18m in England alone had unsafe ACM external wall cladding unlikely to meet the Building Regulations, consequently posing an unacceptable fire risk.
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