CAMPAIGNERS have told the government it must step up action to remove dangerous tower block cladding in the wake of the massive fire in Dagenham.

End our Cladding Scandal slammed Sir Keir Starmer for having “chosen to not say a word about the building safety crisis since he became prime minister, preferring to focus on building new homes rather than rescuing ordinary people from this living nightmare.”

Cabinet Office Minister Ellie Reeves admitted that removing dangerous cladding needed to be “ramped up,” but the group called this “very much an understatement.”

Grenfell United, representing many of the bereaved and survivors of the catastrophic 2017 fire, said the blaze in Dagenham in a building known to have safety issues “highlights the painfully slow progress of remediation across the country, and a lack of urgency for building safety as a whole.”

And Action for Fire Safety Justice said: “It’s another tragedy waiting to happen. The slow pace not only of remediation but also of regulation changes is absolutely unacceptable.

“The government needs to fund the immediate removal of combustible cladding across all housing, and draw up an emergency plan to address fire safety issues that put our lives at risk.”

Dame Judith Hackett, who led a review into building safety, said today that “it’s really concerning that so many people are left with this level of fear about the safety of the buildings they’re in.

“This is a really urgent problem that needs fixing.”

Ms Reeves was unable to say today when remedial work would be completed and government figures show that of 4,630 residential buildings in England 11 metres high or more identified with unsafe cladding, only around half had started remedial work and one-third completed it.

More than 80 people had to be evacuated from the Dagenham block, which was undergoing remedial work, and two were hospitalised. 

Sam Ogbeide, who lives on the fourth floor, said he was coughing up “black” from the smoke and that “everything is gone. I don’t know what to do.”

Emmanuelle Perraud, who lives on the third floor, said: “I’m angry and concerned that the cladding hadn’t been removed faster because the plans were in place to do so last summer and it’s taken nearly nine months for them to start taking it down.”

The Fire Brigades Union said the incident exposed the “national scandal of flammable cladding and deregulation in the building industry” a week before the Grenfell inquiry is due to report.