Up to 7,000 buildings not counted in official statistics could still need cladding remediation work, a government minister has revealed.

Rushanara Ali, the Minister for Building Safety, told the House of Commons this week that although funding was available for the work, many building owners had not applied to the cladding safety scheme.

She told MPs: “I want to focus on the number of affected properties. The remediation of 4,630 residential buildings above 11 metres is being monitored by my department. For half of them, remediation has started; 1,350 have completed remediation. However, counting the buildings that we know about is not enough.

“We estimate that as many as 7,000 buildings that need remediation have not yet applied for the cladding safety scheme. That is a maximum estimate—there may well be fewer than that—but those responsible for those buildings have no excuse for failing to apply. We will work with regulators to ensure that the buildings are identified,” she added.

Rushanara Ali said the speed of remediation work must increase and the onus was on regulators, regional mayors and the government to make sure it happened.

“We will ensure that dangerous buildings are found and dealt with. The money is there. The speed must increase. We are not leaving this task just to regulators; the Government must do more, and this government will do so,” she said.

“The government have committed up to £400 million in grant funding for the removal of Grenfell-style cladding in the social sector, and social housing landlords can apply for the grant schemes in particular circumstances, but we are working with regulators and the sector to ensure that social landlords assess the progress of remediation work.

“Since 2017, some progress has been made, including the Building Safety Act 2022, which Labour supported. But what is clear is that the speed of work to fix unsafe cladding is not fast enough,” she said.

“The recent fires in Dagenham and Slough underlined the vulnerabilities that persist in our built environment. Since coming into office, we have met regulators and other industry partners to press for action to make buildings safe.

“We are contacting all metro mayors in England to ask for their support in driving forward local remediation acceleration plans, working in partnership with regulators.”