The government has said that private building owners have a moral obligation to pay for any work required to replace dangerous cladding and has pledged £400 million to do similar work on social housing. Private building owners have been told they must inform the government if their cladding is the same as that used on the Grenfell tower. A task force has been set up by the housing minister James Brokenshire to ensure this process takes place and the costs are not passed on to leaseholders.

Mr Strong has pointed out that the required information is not being passed on and that landlords had informed the Institution that they thought they had the cladding but did not wish to disclose it because they didn’t know how to resolve it. Mr Strong agreed that there is an ethical and moral issue and the Institution believed that the problem was probably much bigger in the private sector than the public sector.

He estimates that the number of private buildings with this type of cladding to be around 600 - twice the official figure which has been set at 293 by the government. This indicates that a large number of landlords are failing to do their duty as required by the government.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has stated that they are working alongside building owners to ensure that all affected buildings are identified and interim safety measures are put in place. Owners are expected to confirm if their building is affected.