Newport City Homes, with the support of Welsh Government, submitted samples from three tower blocks at Milton Court, Hillview and Greenwood in Newport for testing in line with the Department of Communities and Local Government guidance last week.
Ceri Doyle, CEO of Newport City Homes, said: “The safety of our residents has always, and will continue to be, a priority for Newport City Homes. We are disappointed to learn the results of the cladding test, our focus is now on making sure that residents are safe and feel reassured.
“We have a dedicated presence at each of our tower blocks, alongside fire safety officers, so that residents can speak to someone if they have any questions or concerns.
“We have robust and up-to-date fire risk assessments on our tower blocks and we have already adopted all of the relevant additional fire safety measures issued by government. We also carry out a training exercise at our tower blocks with South Wales Fire and Rescue Service every year. This exercise tests equipment to make sure that during an emergency firefighters can respond quickly. We know that the fire service’s mobile platform can reach the top of our tower blocks.
“Each of our tower blocks additionally have a number of fire safety measures in place including: smoke/fire alarms; fire doors; fire breaks between every floor and vertically; fire retardant paint; two stairways that act as evacuation routes; and emergency lighting.
“We are grateful for the support of Welsh Government, Community Housing Cymru, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, and Newport City Council over the last few weeks. We welcome any further guidance from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) expert panel on whether we need to consider further safety measures and on their considerations of ‘whole system’ testing.
“We are proceeding to conduct ‘whole system’ testing, however, our focus now is to reassure residents that the homes they live in are safe.”