Building owners will now have access to £1bn of funds going beyond replacing aluminium composite material to other unsafe cladding systems, like high-pressure laminate panels.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the new fund would be available for all private and social sector buildings taller than 18m, but warned building owners would be expected to fund their fair share of work.

Previously in 2018, the Government pledged £400m for social housing tower blocks with ACM and last year earmarked £200m for the private sector.

But its call at the start of the year on building owners to check fire safety of other cladding systems, particularly HPL when used with non-mineral wool insulation raised serious concerns about the extent of the country’s retrofit bill.

Student rooms developer Unite recently put the cost of replacing HPL on its buildings at £20m,  significantly more than cost of replacing ACM cladding on its estate.