The owner of student accommodation that was ravaged by flames last night have previously been reprimanded for breaching fire safety regulations.
Hundreds of students were evacuated from The Cube in Bolton when an inferno broke out at about 8.30pm on Friday.
Witnesses said the blaze ‘crawled up the cladding like it was nothing’ as 200 firefighters and 40 fire engines descended on the scene to tackle the flames.
The building is owned by private student accommodation provider Urban Student Life (USL).
In 2016, they were suspended from The National Code scheme for a year over problems with a development in Leeds, including fire safety breaches.
The National Codes scheme is a voluntary scheme for student accommodation providers, supported by the National Union of Students (NUS).
It guarantees tenants will get a certain standard of management and have a clear procedure they can follow if any problem occurs.
This is scandalous @ShellyAsquith 😡
Another company flouting fire safety.
There are consequences of Fire Ministers & Housing Ministers refusing to listen to the professionals, over the last 9 years. https://t.co/2pLGRnc2Nx
— Eastern Fire Brigades Union (@EasternFBU) November 16, 2019
Asquith House, in Leeds, was so late being completed tenants had to live in hotel accommodation and even share beds for 11 weeks after they were meant to move in.
An NUS tribunal heard the company then failed to act quickly enough to provide refunds to students and failed to provide any fire safety guidance.
As a result of its ruling, Leeds City Council sent the Fire Authority to inspect the building, and decided it was still not fit for use.
It meant the tenants who were due to move in had to find alternative accommodation.
USL’s troubled history was revealed by Shelly Asquith, who worked as the NUS Vice President for welfare at the time.
On Twitter she said: ‘The Company which runs this student halls in Bolton was suspended from the national codes in 2016, after our tribunal found they had failed on fire safety.
‘Suspension is very rare, and serious questions now need asking as to how [USL] can continue to operate’.
Ms Asquith previously described their handling of the Leeds accommodation as a ‘shocking and disgraceful example of malpractice’.
The Eastern Fire Brigade Union said it was ‘scandalous’ to still see companies flouting fire regulation and said professionals were being ignored.
The Fire Bridgades Union has called for a complete overhaul of UK fire safety and have condemned government cuts to the service.
The Fire Brigades Union has called for a complete overhaul of UK fire safety and condemned cuts to fire and rescue services after two people were injured in a fire at a student accommodation building in Bolton in Greater Manchester
— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) November 16, 2019
The cladding material or cause of the blaze in the Bolton halls has not been confirmed.
However, the speed at which the flames spread caused many to compare it to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, when 72 people died.
Ms Asquith said questions had to be raised given USL’s ‘history of failing on fire safety’.
In the aftermath of Grenfell, Bolton University students were reassured The Cube did not have the same dangerous cladding as that tower block.
Fire safety officers visited The Cube following Grenfell to inspect the cladding, and reassured students it was safe.
People are raising questions about the adequacy of that inspection in light of last night’s fire, which injured two people.
Some students have now claimed the alarms in one of the Bolton flats did not sound.
Stephen McKenzie, an independent fire safety and resilience expert, told BBC 5Live: ‘We’ve got a catastrophic failure of the fire safety provisions in this building.
‘Most concerning of all is the reports from the students evacuating is that the fire alarm did not operate.’
After the Grenfell tragedy the NUS called on the government to include student accommodation in its review of cladding.
Th government decided to only require removal of cladding on buildings over 18m.
In a statement to metro.co.uk, Eva Crossan Jory, the NUS Welfare Vice President, said it shouldn’t take another fire’ for the government and student accommodation providers to improve fire safety measures.
She said: ‘It’s devastating that students have had to experience this shocking situation, we commend the fire brigade on bringing the fire under control so swiftly and other emergency services treating those injured.
‘NUS has been calling for a number of improvements in fire-safety measures in student accommodation, and while this building doesn’t appear to have used the same cladding as Grenfell, we also don’t know what role it might have played in this fire.
‘It shouldn’t take another fire to put the issue of building safety back on the agenda. Student safety must always be the first priority for accommodation providers and the government.’
Urban Student Life have been contacted for comment.
At the time of the 2016 tribunal ruling, the company blamed delays to moving in on the developer, who they accused of poor communication.
The statement said: ‘We accept the decision of the Tribunal due to the impossible situation we were placed in by the developer. We are reviewing our processes and communications with developers to prevent a similar issue arising again.’
Last year, Operations director at USL Andrew Buchanan told the Liverpool Echo that they did not agree with the national codes ruling, saying the issues arose ‘solely due to failings by the developer when constructing the building’.
He said: ‘At all stages USL acted in the best interest of the students and was therefore both surprised and disappointed that the National Codes chose to suspend USL’s membership.’
The National Codes ruled USL would be suspended for a year, but said they could not not reapply until all of its other developments were inspected.
Last summer Mr Buchanan said they had not re-applied to join the scheme yet but did intend to.
Ms Asquith said meeting the requirements of the National Codes should be made a legal requirement in order to protect students from building safety risks.
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