THE leader of Glasgow City Council has apologised to residents for the delay in confirming if any high-rise flats across the city have a "Grenfell type arrangement".
A week ago it emerged that 57 privately owned high-rise properties in the Glasgow City Council area could have similar cladding to that on the London tower block, which was destroyed by a massive inferno claiming an estimated 80 lives.
On Wednesday, MSPs were told the local authority should be able to provide the "clarity" required on the nature and extent of the cladding on these buildings by the end of this week.
Staff from the Scottish Government went to Glasgow Council yesterday to help officials there provide the necessary information, Holyrood's Housing Minister said.
Kevin Stewart added: "Glasgow City Council have a responsibility to residents to progress this work as a matter of urgency."
MSPs on the Scottish Parliament's Local Government Committee had heard last week from a senior official on the council that a search in the aftermath of the Grenfell fire tragedy had found combustible cladding on some private flats - but the council had not gone public and informed the owners of the buildings.
Council leader Susan Aitken apologised "unreservedly" for any alarm caused to residents.
She told STV News: "This problem came about because information that was incomplete emerged prematurely, for which I can only apologise to anyone who has been alarmed or distressed by that happening.
"That should never have happened but once it did we had to make sure the problem wasn't compounded by other incomplete information."
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Ms Aitken added: "It is not our expectation at this point that there is any immediate danger or concern for residents.
"Had we identified that, had any of the investigations identified that, then there would have been immediate action taken and the council would have had to consider using its emergency enforcement powers."
Bill Dodds, the head of building standards at the Scottish Government, said it was "mainly clarity around the extend of the cladding" they were seeking.
He told the committee: "The majority of the requests for clarity are around the age of the building, the height of the building, the extent of the cladding material and so on.
"It's quite important to clarify in Grenfell the entire building was overclad with ACM (aluminium composite material), it was a complete enclosure of ACM material so what we're trying to do is establish whether we have a Greenfell type arrangement where the building is completely overclad in ACM product or if it is in isolated areas, that's the clarity we're asking."
Mr Stewart confirmed he had received an email from the Government officials sent into the Glasgow this morning which said they are on track to complete work by the end of the week.
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The Housing Minister told MSPs: "As it stands at this moment in time we are still not certain about what the situation is in all of these buildings.
"We need to get all of that information, which Glasgow hopes to have by the end of this week, and then we can look to see what is required."
He was critical of Glasgow City Council over its failure to accept the Scottish Government's help to compile the information, describing that as "unacceptable".
Mr Stewart said: "The disappointing thing, and I cannot reiterate this enough, is the fact that they refused help when it was offered and it took the intervention of the council leader to get building standards officers in Glasgow to accept help. That to me is unacceptable."
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