The company paid £3million to install the cladding, Harley Curtain Wall Ltd, has since gone bust after one of their customers refused to pay them almost £500,000 for disputed work.

The director of the company, Ray Bailey, who has since started a new firm Harley Facades Limited, said that they had used a common Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) panels which are a commonly used product in the refurbishment industry.

The London Fire Brigade warned ministers that building regulations were not taking into account the vertical fire issues that cladding could cause in 1999, warning that because of cladding regulations were "inadequate".

Glyn Evans from the Fire Brigades Union told a Select Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs that after the Great Fire of London only horizontal fires were considered and "we do not really recognise the problem of vertical envelopment. If you get multistorey buildings you will get fire spread up the outside if the cladding will permit it."

The Health and Safety Executive, the police and the fire service are now expected to launch a large-scale investigation into the safety of the building and whether regulations were complied with.