Extracts from an article written by Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter at The Times and Bruno Waterfield, Brussel’s Correspondent for The Times.
“Thousands of buildings across Britain have been fitted with external cladding similar to the kind implicated in the unprecedented spread of the Grenfell Tower fire. The public sector alone has spent £553 million on contracts to wrap such insulation round the outside of buildings including homes, schools, hospitals and leisure centres.” [...]
“The issue of fire safety on buildings encased in cladding does not apply just to tower blocks. Analysis by Tussell, a database of UK procurement, found that public contracts worth £553 million for cladding projects were awarded between March 2014 and this month. Gus Tugendhat, of Tussell said: ‘This gives a sense of how common its use is in the public sector alone. Over the last three years, 75 contracting authorities across the wider public sector have awarded 558 contracts mentioning cladding with an aggregate value of £553 million to 234 different suppliers’.” [...]
Read the full article on The Times’ website.
