Notting Hill Housing Trust Statement re Responding to the Grenfell Tower Fire (2214L)

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RNS Number : 2214L

Notting Hill Housing Trust

17 July 2017

Responding to the Grenfell Tower tragedy

Following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, we continue to provide support to our residents and the wider community, as well as ensuring our current and future housing stock is as safe as possible.

Beyond supporting those directly affected by the blaze, there has been enhanced focus on fire safety across the housing sector. Our policy is to carry out a fire risk assessment of all high risk homes annually. This includes buildings over six storeys in height as well as those where residents are felt to be particularly vulnerable, such as our extra care schemes. We are up to date with all those assessments and are reviewing all open actions identified by those assessments.

Shortly after the fire, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) asked registered providers to supply details of all homes over six storeys high. We have 101 such buildings and initial reviews identified that 42 of them warranted further investigation. Following a further review, this figure has risen to 44. Of those 44 buildings, investigations have shown that 40 do not have ACM cladding.

Those 40 include Paragon, our student housing blocks in Brentford, where we sent a core sample of cladding to the Building Research Establishment (BRE) who are experts in this field. The BRE have confirmed that the cladding at Paragon is not ACM.

At Grange Walk, a mixed tenure residential development in Bermondsey, the cladding did not pass the BRE's fire tests. Although Grange Walk is considered by our fire safety professionals to be relatively low risk as the blocks are only partially clad, we have quickly put in place measures to protect our residents and mitigate any risks. These include notifying the London Fire Brigade to arrange an inspection, carrying out checks to fire doors and smoke and fire alarms and checking that the current fire risk assessment is valid and that recommendations from any action plan have been completed. We have also put in place a fire watch by trained security officers to complement our on-site concierge service. We have notified residents of the actions we have taken.

Core samples of the cladding on a further three blocks are with the BRE for testing. Neither Grange Walk nor the other three blocks where samples are being tested have been charged to any of our publicly traded bonds.

We will update this page as the test results are returned, and we will continue to provide our full support to any further investigations requested by DCLG.

In terms of our current developments, we are carrying out a review of projects that are on-site, all of which conform with current building regulations. We are also reviewing our briefing and technical guidance to consider fire safety issues that are not already mandated by building regulations.

Kindly visit our website https://www.nhhg.org.uk/investors/ for more information about how we've supported those directly affected by the fire and the safety advice we've issued to all residents.

This information is provided by RNS

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July 17, 2017 04:09 ET (08:09 GMT)