HC Deb 16 January 1985 vol 71 cc153-4W
Mr. Fatchett

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list those types of pre-cast reinforced concrete and timber framed dwellings which have been subject to structural analysis at the request of his Department.

Mr. Gow

The Building Research Establishment has investigated the structural condition of the following types of prefabricated reinforced concrete dwelling designed before 1960:

  • Airey
  • Ayrshire
  • Blackburn-Orlit
  • Boot
  • Boswell
  • Butterley
  • Cornish Unit
  • Dorran
  • Dyke
  • Gregory
  • Hamish Cross
  • Lindsay
  • Minniel
  • Myton
  • Newland
  • Orlit
  • Parkinson
  • Reema Hollow Panel
  • Schindler-Hawkesley SGS
  • Stent
  • Stonecrete
  • Stour
  • Tarran
  • Teebeam
  • Underdown
  • Unitroy
  • Unity
  • Waller
  • Wates
  • Wessex
  • Whitson-Fairhurst
  • Winget
  • Woolaway

Last autumn the BRE was asked to put in hand a study of the systems used in the 140,000 dwellings built in large reinforced concrete panels in the 1960s and 1970s.

No study of any type of timber-framed house designed before 1960 has been commissioned, but the BRE has examined houses of the Spooner type in Leeds after a house of that type suffered wind damage to its brick cladding. In 1981–83, the BRE studied the use of timber-framed methods in new housing as part of its continuing work on changes in design and construction methods. A number of points arising from the study are the subject of further work by the BRE.