Which? has requested a judicial review of trading standards watchdogs over their handling of the Whirlpool tumble dryer scandal.

Peterborough Trading Standards has been dealing with the alert, which involves a reported 5.3 million dryers made by Whirlpool brands Hotpoint, Indesit and Creda, as Whirlpool’s UK head office is in Peterborough.

Fire chiefs warned in October that owners of faulty Whirlpool dryers must stop using them immediately after one of the machines was found to be the cause of a huge blaze in an 18-storey tower block in Shepherd’s Bush in London in August.

London Fire Brigade said they believed a faulty Indesit dryer was the cause of the blaze, following a “painstaking” investigation.

Which? said it was “stepping up its action” with the judicial review request to the High Court following Peterborough Trading Standards’ “failure to review the situation in light of this report”.

The consumer group said it believed that Peterborough Trading Standards had failed consumers by not properly carrying out its role as an enforcer of product safety laws.

It said it expected the watchdog to conduct a fresh, independent assessment of the risks posed to consumers by the faulty dryers that remain in homes and “not shy away from enforcement action if it is needed”.

Various dryers made by Hotpoint, Indesit and Creda between April 2004 and September 2015 are subject to a safety notice about the fire risk, which is caused by excess fluff coming into contact with the heating element.