THE cost of replacing cladding on two of Oxford’s tower blocks remains well within the city council’s £1m budget.

Council papers reveal that the authority has so far spent £828,000 on the project to strip Evenlode and Windrush Towers of flammable cladding and replace it with a safer material.

Work also remains on target to finish on the Blackbird Leys towers in July, meeting the council-set target revealed last year.

It was told in August that the Vitrabond rainscreen cladding which had been installed as part of an anticipated £20m renovation of five tower blocks across the city was a fire risk.

Tests were carried out on blocks across the country following the Grenfell Tower disaster in London last June, in which 71 people died.

Authorities, including Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, have insisted residents in Oxford’s tower blocks are safe.

They said any repeat of a similar situation to what happened at Grenfell Tower would be prevented by a system of sprinklers that are fitted throughout the buildings.

The council has paid for Opus Euroclad, an A1 solid aluminium sheet similar to materials on Plowman and Foresters Towers, in Marston and Wood Farm respectively.

The revamp of the five blocks has run £650,000 over budget but it is understood that is not because of the cladding replacement.

The council had initially wanted to complete the cladding replacement by February 2018 but was told that new fittings had to be installed on the towers to fix the new rainscreen and that has delayed work.

It is expected that the council will be expected to foot the replacement bill itself – despite the Local Government Association alleging that the Government had said it would stump up cash for projects across the country in the aftermath of the fire at Grenfell Tower.

Across the country, at least 288 tower blocks are waiting to be reclad – with costs set to spiral up to about £1bn.

Some have been hit by delays of up to seven months and in some cases legal cases have held up work to make buildings safer.

According to the Guardian, some councils said arsonists had targeted buildings with flammable cladding, including some in the Thames Valley.

The newspaper sent freedom of information requests to councils and learned that one council-owned block in Slough has been a target several times.

In addition, a private block of flats which is covered with aluminium composite material panels similar to the ones plastered on Grenfell at the time of the disaster is subject of a 24-hour watch by fire crews and wardens.

But Slough Borough Council refused to release any further detail about the buildings, arguing that the Government had said that ‘vulnerable buildings’ could be targeted by terrorists.