The day cladding was removed from the Chalcots towers after the evacuation crisis

THE second stage of the review of the botched refurbishment of the Chalcots estate is set to get underway at the Town Hall, writes Tom Foot.

The review is set to look into the Private Finance Initiative deal agreed with Camden Council to refurbish the estate. The tower blocks – in Fellows Road in the Belsize ward – had to be evacuated due to a series of safety concerns that followed the Grenfell disaster.

This stage of the review will look at “the broader and more technical aspects of the events leading up to the evacuation of residents on the estate”.

It will probe the original refurbishment of the blocks by the PFI company and the decisions around which cladding system was used.

Architect Bart Kavanagh has been appointed as the independent chair of the review that is expected to last three months.

Councillor Sagal Abdi-Wali, cabinet member for better homes, said: “Through this second stage of the independent review, we will look at the refurbishment of the Chalcots by the PFI Company and the blocks’ management to understand and learn from what went wrong.

“We couldn’t have got this far in the process without the support and patience of our Chalcots residents and I am incredibly grateful for their help so far.”

The first part of the independent review – started in December 2017 and published in June 2018 – looked at the evacuation and the remedial fire safety works carried out in July 2017.

The second stage will be informed by the findings of the Grenfell Inquiry in relation to regulations and products, and how they were applied at the time of the works, the council said.

In 2022, the four companies that refurbished and maintained the Chalcots estate under a private finance initiative (PFI) deal before it was evacuated over fire safety fears have reached an out-of-court settlement after being challenged by the council.