 Grenfell cladding inspection team recruiting |
A long-awaited taskforce to help
local authorities identify and remove combustible cladding similar to that used
on the Grenfell tower is finally being set up.
Communities secretary James
Brokenshire promised in June that a joint inspection team (JIT) would be created
to advise local authorities on complex remediation work but no steps have so
far been taken.
In the 18 months since the fire, only
five out of the 183 high-rise, privately rented blocks identified have had aluminium composite material (ACM) panels removed and the building repaired
according to the latest figures from MHCLG.
The Local Government Association
is now advertising for a principal EH officer to lead the JIT, and three other EH professionals with ‘substantial experience of using HHSRS, taking
enforcement action, conducting interviews under caution, preparing warrants,
and giving evidence in court’.
A building fire safety engineer
is expected to be recruited at a later date, and the entire cost of the team
has been estimated in the region of £1 million. The advert specifies that EH
professionals on the team will also be expected to help train non-EH staff in the JIT, such as fire engineers,
building control staff, solicitors and a data analyst.
The job specification says the
national team will ‘support local authorities and give them
confidence to pursue enforcement action against building owners of residential
high-rise buildings with unsafe ACM cladding’.
Successful applicants will ‘advise local authorities
in using the Housing Act 2004 to assess the hazard risk of ACM cladding in
high-rise residential buildings and in taking enforcement action against
building owners who are slow to remediate’.
The JIT is being set up by the Local Government Association, the Ministry of
Housing, Communities and Local Government and the national fire chiefs’
council.
A total of 441 high-rise
buildings – including the 183 privately rented high-rises, hotels, student
accommodation, social sector residential buildings, as well as publically owned
buildings such as hospitals and schools- have been identified as containing the
highly flammable panels. Yet only 63 have been remediated.
However, it is within the private
residential sector that is moving particularly slowly.
The Housing Health and Safety
Rating System has had an
addendum added, which will come into force in 24 January, providing specific
guidance on the removal of unsafe ACM panel cladding from high rises.
In December the
government amended the building regulations to ban the use of combustible materials
in the external walls – including window panels and infill panels but not
window frames – of new residential buildings above 18 metres.
This includes
hospitals, residential care homes, student halls and boarding school
dormitories. If they are below 18 metres they will not be affected and the
change does not apply to existing buildings.
The same month, Brokenshire
also announced the Building a Safer Future programme, which commits the
government to a programme of reform recommended by Dame Judith Hackitt in her
review of building regulations and fire safety published following the Grenfell
fire.