Fewer than half of remaining tower blocks with the most dangerous cladding have start dates for remedial works five years after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, MPs heard today.

Permanent secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Jeremy Pocklington, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that just nine of the 24 towers clad in aluminium composite material (ACM) have start dates for improvements ‘in the first half' of this year.