A Hampshire council has reassured residents over building cladding.

After identifying buildings including their own offices, Eastleigh Borough Council (EBC) have said that although one side of its building uses an aluminium composite material (ACM), the layout and other materials in the cladding mean it is the safest it can possibly be.

The cladding used on Grenfell Tower also used ACM, and went up in flames last month, killing 80 people.

EBC said that although both use aluminium, that similarity alone does not make its buildings dangerous.

A statement from the council said: “Aluminium itself is not combustible – it will melt and not burn. The cladding material used on Grenfell Tower incorporated a sandwich layer of material between two aluminium sheets and was found to be combustible.

“In contrast, the material alongside the aluminium used on the panels on our building has a class one fire rating, which means it is highly resistant and will not spread flames quickly.

“Our buildings are designed to ensure the safe evacuation of people working in them and include other measures such as fire doors, alarms, smoke detectors and fire safety escape stairs.”

The council also said that it is rolling out a programme on fire safety inspections to its entire property portfolio over the next month.

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, Southampton City Council and Hampshire County Council stated that no school buildings that had been checked had used the ACM cladding

that has become a major concern in fire safety standards.