This report provides an update on the Council’s response following the Grenfell Tower fire in Kensington on 14 June 2017, including action taken in relation to the Authority’s own housing stock, other corporate buildings and schools, as well as wider work in partnership with the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) in respect of privately owned high rise residential blocks within the Borough boundaries.

Further to Minute 12 of the meeting held on 14 November 2018, the Director of Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted an update report whichprovided an update on the Council’s response following the Grenfell Tower fire in Kensington on 14 June 2017.  This included action taken in relation to the Authority’s own housing stock, other corporate buildings and schools, as well as wider work in partnership with the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) in respect of privately owned high rise residential blocks within the Borough boundaries.

The Council had taken the following action post the Grenfell Tower incident:

•      Instructed Fireskills, an independent fire safety specialist to audit tall buildings within the Housing Revenue Account.  An action plan had been drawn up and the Council had also responded to the Government’s latest guidance on issues such as fire doors.

•      Signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between RBFRS and the six Berkshire Unitary Authorities, to enable a partnership approach to inspections and enforcement.

•      Implemented a building safety programme and started joint work, involving joint fire safety inspections of 32 of the most high risk residential buildings over 18 metres and work to meet fire safety standards had been required where necessary.

•      Identified four high rise residential buildings with Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding which failed the required fire safety standards. These buildings have had interim measures installed and were being monitored in accordance with the current Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) guidance. The council and RBFRS were working with stakeholders of the buildings to support plans to remove, and in some cases replace, the cladding.

•      Begun work in response to a requirement from MHCLG in July 2019 to complete a data collection exercise to identify external wall materials and insulation on all high-rise residential buildings 18 metres and over within their area.  There were approximately 106 such high-rise residential buildings in Reading and legislation under the Housing Act 2004 was being used to require this information from freeholders.

The report also set out the current position with regard to the work being undertaken to meet the requirements set out in the action plan in the Council’s Housing stock, corporate buildings and schools and interim measures that had been put into place for the four cross-tenure high rise buildings.

The report detailed the actions that Council and its partners were planning to undertake going forward:

·         Communications with stakeholders on the high rise residential buildings with ACM to continue. The priority would be to secure remediation of the cladding where required as quickly as possible.

·         The council would undertake steps to obtain external wall details of all applicable buildings in response to the request from MHCLG in order to submit the required data by 31March 2020.

·         The council would keep up to date with the latest Government guidance and take action where appropriate.  This included any new changes derived from recommendations in the final Hackitt review.

·         RBFRS were planning to release information to the media detailing the joint work that had been undertaken on the building safety programme to date.

·         Regular communication and sharing of information between the council and RBFRS, plus joint meetings with relevant stakeholders where required.

Resolved:     That the action taken and planned in respect of fire safety in tall buildings, as detailed in the report, be noted.