Hundreds of tower blocks in Tower Hamlets and Newham have been registered for government cash to get rid of dangerous cladding — more than any other areas in the country, it has emerged.
More registrations have been made to the Building Safety Fund from landowners and property companies in the east London boroughs than from all other London authorities, government data has revealed.
Almost 300 registrations were made in Tower Hamlets and 138 in neighbouring Newham from private developments which don't come under the two local authorities, according to analysis by Cladding Consulting remediation specialists.
“Many have still not gone beyond the registering interest stage,” Cladding Consulting's director Steven Truman said.
“The problem is not just the application process proving complicated and time-consuming. There are 900 buildings all over the country which have registered an interest for funding but haven’t pressed on with their applications.
“More than half of all applications are from London, potentially billions of pounds of remediation work to be carried out.”
The deadline to apply is less than three months away, he said, as full applications need to be submitted by the end of June.
Applications from leaseholders, landowners, right-to-manage companies and property services - which had to register their interest by July last year - reached 1,628 across London, well over half the national total.
The £4.5 billion safety fund was set up to pay for removing all non-ACM cladding from high-rise buildings over 18metres in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster in west London.
The tragedy saw a fire spread rapidly up the building via its cladding, and 72 people who were trapped inside died.
Five areas which have registered more than 100 applications each to remove cladding are in Docklands and along the Thames.
They are topped by Tower Hamlets, which includes Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs, with 294 bids.Newham, which includes the massive Royal Docks and Stratford developments, has made 138 applications, while Westminster made 125, Southwark 121 and Greenwich 100.
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