CLADDING on three tower blocks in Newport which failed safety tests following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 has been replaced, and fire safety standards there now "exceed" legal requirements.

Fire safety for high-rise buildings has come under fresh scrutiny this week, with the UK Government announcing that the building industry – and not residents – would be forced to cover the costs of replacing dangerous cladding materials.

In the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people, inspectors in Newport found potentially unsafe cladding at Hillview in the Gaer, Milton Court in Ringland and Greenwood in St Julians.

The three were the only buildings in Wales to fail cladding safety checks after the Grenfell disaster.

Speaking to the Argus this week, Newport City Homes confirmed that any unsafe cladding had been removed and replaced during "extensive fire safety work" at all three sites by 2019, and extra safety measures had been installed, such as sprinklers fitted in flats and communal areas.

Ceri Doyle, the chief executive of Newport City Homes, said customer safety and wellbeing was the "highest priority" and the firm took "immediate action" after the Grenfell disaster "to identify whether similar risks existed in our tower blocks and began a programme of work to remove and replace the cladding".

She added: "Working on the advice of our partners at South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, we installed sprinklers in flats and communal areas. We also undertook additional safety measures to ensure our work far exceeded the standard required to demonstrate a building is safe.

"Customers at Milton Court, Hillview and Greenwood played a vital role in providing feedback on our plans, so that we were able to complete our work in a timely manner and to high standards that exceed legal fire safety requirements.”