DEADLY CLADDING STILL ON 40 TOWER BLOCKS

Fears up to 315 more are at risk

AT least 40 tower blocks still have unsafe cladding three years after the Grenfell disaster – with no plans to remove it.

The shocking figure represents more than half of 75 private blocks identified as potential fire-traps by an inspection squad since 2018.

The owners of only 35 buildings have produced proposals for replacing aluminium composite cladding – the type that caused the 2017 inferno.

Forty others have failed to offer any plans for making their flats safer – with enforcement action taken against only two of them.

An estimated 2,600 families living in the 40 blocks have been put at risk by the owners’ inaction.

And in total nationwide, it is feared as many as 315 blocks could still have similar unsafe cladding, with the number of residents in danger estimated at more than 56,000.

The Ministry of Housing set up a Joint Inspection Team in June, 2018, to make local councils clamp down on owners who did nothing to deal with risky cladding.

But today Labour reveals that, despite Tory promises of action, little has been done.

Shadow Housing Minister

Mike Amesbury said: “It’s a disgrace so many people are still living in unsafe buildings. At every turn, the Government has been slow to act.” The £1million team is made up of environmental health, building control and fire-safety experts. Ex-Housing Secretary James Brokenshire, who formed it, promised action against all owners who failed to come up with safety plans by last December. Grenfell, in Kensington, West

London, claimed 72 lives in the biggest domestic blaze since World War II.

The inquiry into it, suspended by Covid-19, is due to resume tomorrow.

A Housing Ministry spokesman said the Government had provided £1.6billion to remove unsafe cladding.

He added: “The team was set up to provide expert advice. Enforcement powers sit with local authorities and fire and rescue services.”