THE council has promised to spare no expense in finding out if its buildings in Worcestershire contain flammable cladding.

Worcestershire County Council has also pledged to remove any cladding which poses a fire risk or is the same as the type used on Grenfell Tower.

Place Partnership has been employed to carry out 'identification tests' on council-owned properties that have aluminium cladding.

Many have speculated that the London tower block fire on Wednesday, June 14, was exacerbated by the building's aluminium cladding.

Cllr Karen May, who has responsibilities for transformation and commissioning, said: "If there's a risk to any cladding, it will be removed.

"If it's proven to be the aluminium composite cladding [the same as Grenfell Tower] it will be removed.

"We will worry about the money when we have ascertained what's in the buildings."

Ms May said she was not prepared to speculate on how much the review would cost and said that residents' safety was her priority.

Clive Werrett, corporate health and safety manager for the council, said that the cladding inspections were just one part of an overall review of fire safety.

He said: "We are keen to understand our cladding.

"What we have to focus on as a council is do we have the materials that have this flammable [insulation] core which could under a unique set of conditions cause external fire spread.

"We haven't identified that type of core in our buildings yet. We are checking for it."

Mr Werrett emphasised that the Grenfell Tower fire was the result of a unique combination of factors which might not happen again for another 100 years.

Worcestershire County Council identified two special needs schools, Wyre Forest School and the Vale Of Evesham School Academy, as top priorities for safety tests.

These have been checked and the council said they have found no fire safety issues.

The council also confirmed that the cladding on all of its seven private finance initiative schools is different to the type on Grenfell Tower.

The council owns over 600 buildings, including schools, of which 238 have cladding.