British Chancellor Philip Hammond on Sunday said that the controversial non-fire resistant cladding fitted to Grenfell Tower was banned in the UK.
Days after the tragedy, a lot of attention has been on the panels that were fitted to the outside of the tower in 2011, that have been labelled flammable by German and US authorities and banned from use on high rise buildings.
Asked about this by the BBC’s Andrew Marr, The Chancellor said: “My understanding is the cladding in question, this flammable cladding which is banned in Europe and the US, is also banned here.
“So there are two separate questions. One, are our regulations correct, do they permit the right kind of materials and ban the wrong kind of materials? The second question is were they correctly complied with?”
Mr Hammond said, “That would be a subject that the inquiry will look at. It will also be a subject that the criminal investigation will be looking at.”
Contractors are reported to have saved £5,000 by using cheaper aluminium cladding known as Reynobond PE which does not have a fire resistant core. The cladding installed on the 67-metre Grenfell block was not designed for use on buildings taller than 10metres high — a fraction of the — the Daily Mail reported.
