Two thirds of London boroughs still have at least one tower block with the same combustible cladding blamed for fuelling the spread of the Grenfell fire, it can be revealed.
Hundreds of buildings across the UK were identified as having Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) installed after the devastating fire and the Government ordered its removal from all high rises.
But six years later, work has not started on 23 blocks and dozens more are yet to complete replacing the panels, Government data shows.
The majority of the buildings are in Greater London, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said.
Labour’s shadow housing minister Matthew Pennycook said it “beggars’ belief” that so many still have deadly Grenfell-style ACM cladding.
“The Government must do more to accelerate the pace of remediation across the country,” he added.
The Grenfell inferno prompted safety inspections of high rises across the country and revealed not only a raft of flammable rendering problems but other fire safety defects.
The Capital is at the forefront of the crisis, with more than 1,000 buildings identified as having safety concerns, such as flammable cladding, combustible balconies or missing fire prevention measures.
Up to three million people have been directly impacted by the cladding scandal alone and the estimated cost of remediation works has hit £15billion.
The crisis has also sparked calls for an overhaul of the leaseholder system in England and Wales as homeowners find themselves trapped in unsellable flats deemed unsafe and crippled by service charges.
The Government opened a £4.5million Building Safety Fund to help developers pay for the removal of unsafe non-ACM cladding systems on residential blocks over 18 metres.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove recently wrote to cladding companies investors warning of “severe consequences” for manufacturers if they do not bring forward a comprehensive remediation package.
However leaseholders have still faced bills, sometimes in the millions of pounds, to fix safety problems and insurance payments have also soared for some flat owners.
In Parliament, East Ham MP Stephen Timms MP raised the case of residents at Barrier Point in Newham “whose insurance premiums have risen sixfold”.
Residents at Northpoint in Bromley, which was stripped of dangerous cladding, found no company insure the building, MP Sir Robert Neill told the Commons.
He said: “The cladding has already been removed from the building, the risk has gone and there is a zero claims record, but a major firm like Aviva will not even quote. There is a market failure here.”
Harry Scoffin, co-founder of Commonhold Now, said Grenfell had “highlighted an unfair system” where freeholders are able to “reap the rewards” and hit tenants with “extortionate fees” but are not responsible for building repairs.
He says his mother has seen her service charges on her three-bed flat in the Isle of Dogs rise by £10,000 in the last five years.
“The building safety crisis in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy exposed the reality of leasehold,” Mr Scoffin told the Standard. “You don’t own your flat, you are a tenant with a mortgage who has no choice but to pay whatever fees the landowner, or investor they have offloaded their freehold to, deem necessary. Something has to change.”
A DLUHC spokesman said: “Building owners and developers must act quickly to fix any dangerous defects so residents can finally get on with their lives.
“We have been clear that those responsible must pay to end the crisis. All developers who have signed the developer remediation contract now have a legal duty to get on with remediation.”
