Cladding in just three out of 300 tower blocks replaced in wake of Grenfell Tower tragedy

Just three tower blocks out of almost 300 with the same “dangerous” and “flammable” cladding as Grenfell Tower have had panels taken down and replaced.

The official figures made public on Monday prompted a furious row amid accusations that the Government was dragging its feet in making high rise buildings safe in the wake of the tragedy.

Seven months after the fire - in which 71 people died including an unborn baby - a report published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government revealed “three buildings have finished the installation of replacement cladding”.

Only a further six had begun to replace the dangerous cladding, made of a flammable aluminium composite material.

The report said it had identified 299 tower blocks that had failed safety tests because they had the same cladding system that “therefore present fire hazards”.

Sajid Javid, the Housing Secretary, told MPs that 312 buildings had been tested for fire safety and that all but 13 had failed.

He admitted that the cladding was being removed from a “number of buildings” and being “replaced slowly” and suggested that the construction industry’s “capacity” to carry out the work was partly to blame.

John Healey, Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, said the figures were deeply embarrassing and ‘shamed’ the Government.

Mr Healey said; “More than seven months after the Grenfell Tower fire, it should shame Ministers that only three tower blocks with dangerous, flammable cladding have been replaced.

“Ministers have been off the pace at every stage in their response to the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower.”

The fire in the 24-storey tower block in west London in June is now subject to a public inquiry. The cladding, installed as part of a multi-million pound refurbishment, has been blamed for the rapid spread of the blaze which began with a fire in a fridge-freezer on the fourth floor.

Local authorities have been seeking extra funding from central Government to pay for the work in taking down and replacing the flammable cladding. Camden council, which has stripped cladding from five tower blocks, has estimated the cost of replacing it at £50 million and will take until the summer of 2019 to complete.

The official report identified six councils with 11 or more tower blocks with a ‘cladding system’ that failed safety tests. Four are in London and the other two in the north west.

Out of the 299 high rise residential blocks with the dangerous cladding, 168 are managed by either local councils or housing associations. Of those 160 “are unlikely to meet current Building regulations guidance” states the report, issued monthly as part of the Government’s response to Grenfell.

The Housing Ministry declined to say why just three buildings had been re-clad in the wake of the fire but insisted that the number one priority was the safety of tower block residents.

A Housing Ministry spokesman said: “Nothing is more important than keeping people safe. That’s why, as the Housing Secretary Sajid Javid, made clear in Parliament, we have been working with building owners to identify properties that might be at risk and a variety of interim safety measures have been put in place so everyone is kept safe.”

But Labour said the figures were another example of the failure of ministers and the Conservative-controlled local authority to get a grip on the crisis.

Mr Healey added: “Only one in four Grenfell survivors have a new permanent home, the Government still can’t confirm how many high-rise buildings are unsafe and Ministers are refusing to help with any funding for essential fire safety work in the blocks they do know are dangerous. It’s simply not good enough.”