Slough Borough Council knew there was flammable cladding on Mosaic Apartments on the High Street around a month before a fire broke out there, the Local Democracy Reporting Service can reveal.

In July the government wrote to the authority making it aware the building was fitted with the same type of cladding which wrapped Grenfell Tower.

A major fire broke out at a top floor flat at Mosaic Apartments on August 22. Remarkably all residents were safely evacuated and there were no fatalities - despite the building's "stay put" fire policy and there being no fire alarms, according to residents.

The building’s owner has since confirmed that part of the building was fitted with flammable cladding.

Slough Borough Council has now said it became aware of the cladding in July this year, after the government asked it to investigate – and that it had begun to take action.

A council spokesperson told the LDRS: “We had recently been informed of the presence of potentially flammable cladding and had made some initial interventions in the last few weeks to establish the facts and consider next steps.”

Slough Borough Council said it received a letter from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in July requesting asking for information about Mosaic Apartments.

The spokesperson said the letter raised ‘the potential for dangerous cladding being on the building’. It added that the government had also sent a similar letter to Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The council then contacted Mosaic Apartments’ managing agent Simarc, who confirmed that the top two floors had some flammable ACM panels. Simarc also gave the council the building’s fire risk assessment, which the council passed on to the government.

Council and fire service officials also visited the building to discuss safety works, including the cladding. The LDRS has contacted MHCLG for comment.

Slough Borough Council said it hoped to recruit a specialist to inspect all high rise buildings in the borough.

Building owner Wallace Estates - which has the same directors as Simarc - has confirmed that a section of Mosaic Apartments was fitted type three aluminium composite cladding.

The same type of flammable cladding was responsible for the rapid spread of the fire that engulfed Grenfell Tower in west London in 2017, killing 72 people.

It has since been banned on buildings over 18 metres tall, with owners told to remove it. But removal work on some buildings has been delayed amid arguments over who is responsible for paying and carrying out the work.

Wallace said it had been working with the building’s original developer to resolve the cladding. The property ownership firm said it wasn’t responsible for fire safety defects, suggesting that this lay with the developer.

But Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) says the building's management company PBM is responsible for fire safety measures within the building such as working fire alarms and evacuation plans.

A fire service spokesperson said: “Legal responsibility for the fire safety measures within the building lies with the Responsible Person, which in the case of Mosaic Apartments is the building’s management company.”

They said that the fire authority was working with the management company to make the building safe.

They added: “Should the management company not take suitable steps to ensure appropriate fire safety measures are in place for the building, RBFRS will continue to use its regulatory powers to assure appropriate fire safety measures are in place.”

PBM, Simarc, Wallace Estates and RBFRS have all been contacted for further comment regarding who is responsible for the cladding.