Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant the Answer of 11 February 2019 to Question 217589 on Buildings: Insulation, whether the bespoke testing programme on non-aluminium composite materials commissioned by his Department has included tests on copper composite material cladding with a non-fire retardant core.

The zinc and copper composite material panels, of various thicknesses, tested in the bespoke medium scale testing programme all achieve European Class B-s1,d0 according to the manufacturer’s information.

Our contractor was not able to source materials achieving higher or lower classification from the open market. It was decided to test panels available on the open market, rather than commissioning the production of specific panels as these are representative of the current market, and to avoid additional delays. BRE is currently analysing the results from the tests carried out. The results from the zinc and copper panels will be compared to those from ACM panels, and we will consider the need for the production of other panels depending on the findings.

We expect to be able to publish research findings in the autumn.