OXFORD City Council will replace flammable cladding on its tower blocks – but wants the government to stump up the bill which could spiral up to £1m.

The council’s executive board tonight voted to pay up to £1m to replace cladding which covers about half of Windrush and Evenlode towers in Blackbird Leys.

The government had initially told the Local Government Association (LGA) it would pay for councils’ cladding replacement costs but authorities have now been told they must foot the bill.

Its executive board member for housing, Councillor Mike Rowley, said it wanted to claw back the money from Whitehall.

He said: “We as well as other local authorities of all parties will be looking at holding the government to the promise that was made to the LGA.”

It is likely it will take three months to buy the new cladding because of heightened demand and three months to install. Work should be finished by February 2018.

The authority wanted to replace cladding on the towers in the days after the Grenfell Tower disaster in June.

But it was told to hold fire by the government for a further test to be completed on its cladding and its non-flammable insulation. Those together failed the government's second test.

A first to test the cladding also found it to be flammable.