More than 100 buildings have now failed cladding and insulation fire safety tests, the Government has revealed.

In the second round of tests carried out by the Building Research Establishment (BRE), 111 buildings were found to be at risk; 90 of which are local authority or housing association owned or managed.

The test consisted of a wall cladding system consisting of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding with a polyethylene filler (category 3) with stone wool insulation.

In an update, the Department for Communities and Local Government said: "The government's expert panel advises that the results show this combination does not meet current building regulation guidance.


"Cladding samples from all these buildings had already been tested and failed earlier combustibility tests conducted by BRE.

"Building owners were advised to take immediate action by implementing interim safety measures and working with their local fire and rescue service to complete a fire safety audit.

"Today's (2 August 2017) test results reinforce the evidence already provided to these building owners about fire risks."

Cllr Simon Blackburn, Chair of the Local Government Association's Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said: "Councils will continue to get on with what they need to do to ensure people are safe in their homes. This includes replacing materials on high-rise blocks affected by these fire safety tests.

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

"The Government must commit to meet the full cost to councils of removing and replacing cladding and insulation systems.

"It is also imperative that this testing process moves quickly to identify what landlords should be replacing these systems with as soon as possible.."

(LM)