Housing and Building Safety Minister Lee Rowley has met council chiefs to press them to step up action against building owners who fail to fix medium and high-rise buildings with safety issues.

The Government has handed £8m to councils to boost enforcement teams to force rogue building owners to act swiftly.

The meeting follows successful legal action the Government, leaseholders and councils have taken in recent months against building owners to make sure vital safety work is carried out.

Rowley said: “Councils and fire and rescue services play a crucial role in making sure dangerous buildings get fixed when building owners are stalling.

“Lots of councils are already doing great work in this area but all councils need to take the appropriate action to protect residents and make sure those responsible for making homes safe do so without any further delay.”

To date, Government legal action has forced Grey GR, a subsidiary of RailPen – an organisation that has failed to remediate a substantial number of buildings – to fix building safety issues at Galbraith House in Birmingham within 3 weeks, despite having known about the building safety defects for six years.

The government is taking enforcement action covering six further Grey GR buildings with trials set to take place this year.

In addition to Grey GR, Wallace Estates, which has consistently failed to fix building safety defects, has now accepted remediation orders brought by the Government covering four buildings and committed to dates for the completion of work for 400 residents.

More recently London’s Newham Council has prosecuted a building owner for delays in removing dangerous cladding.