"As a result of the awful scenes witnessed last week at Grenfell Tower in London, the Community Housing Group responded, immediately, by putting in place a series of actions in order to be able to reassure our tenants about the safety of their homes. A Director’s meeting was called on the morning of the Grenfell Tower incident from which we sent out a team to conduct immediate Health & Safety fire checks and commenced an investigation into the external cladding used on any of our properties. We also prioritised the concerns from our tenants at the three blocks of flats at the Horsefair by drafting a clear ‘call centre script’ to answer questions coming in and preparing and hand delivering a letter to all the tenants of those three blocks of flats. We also visited tenants at our sheltered schemes around the district even though their homes are very different in construction.

With regard to the concerns voiced about the safety of the insulated cladding fixed to Grenfell Tower, as yet, there is no proven link to the insulation system being a contributory factor in the spread of the fire in London. Nonetheless, we are able to reassure our tenants that the external wall insulation on all of our flats and houses is significantly different in design to that used on the Grenfell Tower block. The insulation system we have used is a ‘direct fix system’ that does not leave a cavity between the insulation and the wall unlike the system at Grenfell Tower. 

We have used, in all properties, the highest possible standard (class 0) for wall insulation which means it protects surfaces from the spread of flames and limits the amount of heat released from them during a fire. In addition, we have only used products that have been manufacturer tested to ensure minimal smoke emission if burning does occur. It should also be noted that there is no gas supply to our flats at the Horsefair.

All advice given to our tenants in the three blocks of flats regarding evacuation (if there is a fire within their flat) or stay put (if the fire is elsewhere in the building) has been specifically agreed and approved by the H&W Fire Brigade.

Although we test smoke alarms annually, we will now remind all tenants again, about their responsibilities in order to minimise fire risk, such things as regular fire alarm testing, closing internal doors at night, not overloading power sockets, turning off washing machines at night, not to use chip pans or candles, not charging mobile phones overnight, turning off fan heaters and, of course, smoking outside the home.

We will continue to focus on fire safety whilst tenants require answers and/or reassurance."