THE cost to replace external cladding on three Newport City Homes (NCH) tower blocks, after it failed fire tests, could stretch to £2million, an inquiry has heard.

Today, a one-day inquiry led by Newport East’s AM John Griffiths, was held by Welsh Assembly’s equality, local government and communities committee.

The committee heard representatives from councils, housing associations and fire services. This included NCH, who recently failed tests for aluminium composite material (ACM) their tower block buildings’ external cladding.

CEO Ceri Doyle, speaking at the inquiry, discussed inflation in the housing industry and noted that it cost £1.8million in 2013/14 for the three-tier cladding system across three blocks.

She added that it would cost more to replace the 4cm ACM cladding (£2million) than to replace the entire cladding system, describing it as an “awful lot of inflation”.

She added that there were also issues with supply chains, with manufacturers choosing to await the outcome of the national inquiry into Grenfell before releasing products to market.

She reiterated that the buildings were still safe for residents to live in and added NCH are awaiting the outcome of further testing before developing long term and short term plans.

Representatives from housing associations, including Cwmbran-based Bron Afon, were also asked to give evidence on how they reassured residents following the devastating blaze at Grenfell Tower.

Bron Afon executive, Alun Brunt, added that the company had sent off cladding materials to be tested from it’s three high rise tower blocks even through they were not ACM as a reassurance measure.

Representative of fire services in Wales also gave evidence including Steve Rossiter of the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, Stuart Millington from the North Wales service and Iwan Cray from Mid and West Wales.

Mr Rossiter said fire services were not usually involved in planning applications for new developments until they were far along the process, meaning they had little chance to suggest fire safety measures.

“Very often it’s too late and the day and drawings have been done,” he said.

When asked by Mr Griffiths if a single staircase was considered safe in a high-rise block, Mr Cray said: “It is extremely difficult to influence looking at that level of detail.

“Single staircase is fine as long as everything else is in place. The answer for me is sprinklers.”

But he said in significant developments such as shopping centres fire services were given an input at a much earlier stage.

Although new rules came into force in September 2013 requiring all new homes to be fitted with fire sprinklers, Mr Millington said there had been a “significant increase” in planning applications in the months leading up to this, meaning these applications did not have to conform to the regulations.

“There is a significant moral question for developers to ask about where their moral compass lies,” he said.

The cladding on the side of Grenfell Tower has been blamed by many for helping the fire spread. Mr Rossiter said with this sort of material the main issue was deterioration over time.

“It needs to be tested on a regular basis,” he said. “When it’s a brand new building and it’s just gone up and the fire tests is done it’s probably really good.”

Director of the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru Matt Dicks and Gareth John of the Chartered Institute of Building also appeared before the meeting.

Mr Dicks said a key issue was to determine a course of action once cladding had failed a fire test.

“We need certainty and clarity from the Welsh Government in terms of the type of testing needed,” he said. “Once cladding is found to have failed what is the timescale going forward?”

In the days after the fire at Grenfell it emerged some residents had raised concerned about safety in the block, but these had fallen on deaf ears.

Mr Griffiths said: “As we’ve seen in Grenfell Tower it’s very important that resident’s views are heard and there are proper systems for engagement.”

Mr Dicks replied: “The housing associations are doing things on it, but it is something we’ve got to keep doing.”

Also appearing before the committee were Steve Clarke of advocacy group Welsh Tenants and David Wilton of TPAS, which also represents the interests of residents in the rental sector.

Mr Clarke said the Grenfell fire had repercussions across the housing sector, while Mr Wilton singled out Bron Afon for praise for running an online conversation with residents in the aftermath of the blaze.

But he said it was people living in sheltered housing who felt they had not been given enough information.