One-in-three buildings inspected by fire experts was found to be “unsatisfactory”, Home Office figures show.
Local fire services conducted 49,327 safety audits in the year up to March, 2019.
Of these, 16,062 buildings were rated “unsatisfactory”, including 1,388 hotels, 458 schools and 155 hospitals.
Fire chiefs warned of “senseless” cuts after Friday’s Cube student flats blaze in Bolton, Greater Manchester, which brought back memories of Grenfell.
Matt Wrack, of the Fire Brigades Union, said: “It’s deeply troubling to see fire spread rapidly up a building’s exterior again – a shocking indictment of the Government’s shameful inaction after Grenfell.”
And Les Skarratts, of the FBU, added: “We need to stop the senseless cuts before we see another awful incident like this.”
The Cube did not have the cladding used at Grenfell, but was fitted with high-pressure laminate panels. In June, as part of our Grenfell: Never Again campaign, the Mirror told how 1,700 buildings clad in HPL were being tested.
In July, the Government admitted cladding using any type of HPL panels with combustible insulation was very unlikely to prevent fire spreading.
