In early February, the law changed in relation to the appraisal and remediation of fire risks for multi-storey blocks of residential flats and student accommodation built before 2018. The government quietly withdrew its Consolidated Advice Note, which was last reissued in January 2020. The Note provided guidance on managing cladding risks following the Grenfell tragedy, and required existing residential buildings to be judged against the combustibility criteria for new builds. The Note has been replaced with Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 9980, which describes the previous approach as "very conservative" in terms of fire safety, "giving rise to excessive caution". The PAS also says the Note led to expensive, intrusive fire tests and remediation being demanded for many buildings. This meant time and effort were diverted from resolving fire safety for buildings at relatively greater risk.
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