Asbestos inside 70 St Helens council buildings amid calls for nationwide removal

Although there are no plans to remove the material, St Helens Council confirmed that these buildings are monitored in "strict accordance with current regulations".

There are no requirements for local authorities to remove asbestos, but with nationwide plans to retrofit buildings in order to meet carbon net-zero requirements, there are concerns that more asbestos-containing materials will be disturbed in the coming decades.

While “extreme exposures” may be a thing of the past, members of the Commons Work and Pensions Committee said that asbestos remained the biggest cause of work-related deaths in the UK - with more than 5,000 fatalities recorded in 2019.

A widely used construction material until the late 1990s, asbestos fibres can be released into the air when disturbed which then causes damage to the lungs and their lining, with long-term exposure understood to cause cancer.

Despite being banned for more than 20 years, the Health and Safety Executive estimates that asbestos may still be present in approximately 300,000 non-domestic buildings and in many more homes.

Aware of this information, the Committee has called for a 40-year deadline to remove all remaining asbestos from public and commercial buildings across the UK.

Councillor Richard McCauley, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Planning, said:

“There are currently 70 council-owned buildings that have known asbestos-containing materials, which we manage and monitor in strict accordance with current regulations, and we work closely with all our internal and external supply chains to ensure asbestos within our premises remains undisturbed.

"We welcome any reviews or future guidance that will enable organisations to be more proactive regarding known asbestos.

"However, we also understand that the removal of asbestos raises a number of safety risks, which need to be carefully considered and managed.

"While we have no proposed programme for the total removal of asbestos within our buildings, we continue to review and agree the extent of removals on a project-by-project basis when undertaking any refurbishment or improvement works within our premises.”