About 600 high-rise buildings in England contain cladding similar to that used in the Grenfell Tower apartment building which caught fire earlier this month, killing at least 79 people.

“The estimate provided to us by councils is that there are approximately 600 high-rise buildings with similar cladding,” Ms May’s spokeswoman told reporters.

It is suspected that this material helped the blaze spread.

Cladding testing has so far found at least several other tower blocks in England to have combustible panels. The Government does not yet have estimates for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, she said.

On Wednesday, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, revealed that at least 11 other towers throughout England had been clad in combustible material similar to that installed at Grenfell Tower, the ABC reported.

“The relevant local authorities and local fire services have been informed, and, as I speak, they are taking all possible steps to ensure buildings are safe and to inform affected residents,” UK Prime Minister Theresa May said.

“No stone will be left unturned” in the inquiry into the tragedy, adding: “For any guilty parties there will be nowhere to hide,” she said.

Ms May said the Government would work with local authorities to ensure any dangerous material was removed and residents were safe.

UK Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn said each of the London tower block deaths “could and should have been avoided” due to the revelation that the cladding used had been combustible.

Mr Corbyn compared the tragedy to the Hillsborough football stadium disaster and child abuse scandals, saying: “The pattern is consistent: working-class people’s voices are ignored, their concerns dismissed by those in power.”

He said the residents of Grenfell Tower were “let down both in the immediate aftermath and so cruelly beforehand”, asserting that the public inquiry “must establish the extent and by who”.

Thousands of people living in tower blocks around the country needed urgent assurances about their own safety, he said.

Chalcots Estate in north London and the Mount Wise Tower in Plymouth are among the seven blocks to have been identified as containing the combustible cladding.

A spokeswoman for Ms May said that while the samples taken from those identified buildings failed government tests, it did not mean the tower blocks were “unsafe”. This will be determined after further investigations by fire and rescue services.

– with AAP