The UK government had all the evidence it needed to know as far back as 2002 that the dangerous cladding used on Grenfell Tower should "never, ever" have been installed on tall buildings.
When the cladding – which consisted of a plastic core coated with thin sheets of aluminium – was tested, molten metal began to drip from the panel after just three minutes. The 30-minute test was halted after just five minutes for safety reasons when flames raged as high as 20m. The Building Research Establishment (BRE), a privatised testing organisation that carried out the test in summer 2001, handed its evidence to the government in September 2002.
Despite the “catastrophic” test failure, ACM panels were widely marketed as being compliant with a key standard known as Class 0, which meant they could be used on high-rise residential towers. The government issued no warning to industry and did not withdraw the Class 0 standard despite major concerns about its adequacy. ACM cladding was allowed to be installed on hundreds of high-rise developments over the fifteen years following the 2002 report.
Dr Debbie Smith, former managing director of the BRE was asked whether the government “was in no doubt at all that ACM panels” with a polyethylene core should “never, ever” be used over18 metres, Smith said yes.
Seven out of 11 companies' were found by the BRE to have made misleading statements indicating their cladding met the Class 0 standard, meaning it could be used on buildings over 18m tall.
"It appears that the market claims of some manufactured products were not as they ought to be," said Dr Smith.
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