The government has “named and shamed” five building owners who have not fixed dangerous cladding on their properties, describing their behaviour as “egregious”.

They include Adriatic Land 3 Limited, a freeholder that is managed by a firm led by David Cameron’s brother-in-law William Astor. It owns buildings including Skyline Central, a high-rise apartment complex in Manchester wrapped in combustible high-pressure laminate cladding.

The move delivers on a threat last month by the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick to name recalcitrant freeholders almost 1,000 days after the Grenfell Tower fire, which claimed 72 lives.

Jenrick also named Chaplair Limited, a company that has freehold investments worth more than £8m, Grangewalk Developments Limited, RMB 102 Limited and STG Management (London) Limited, which is a dormant company, according to Companies House.

“If they do not act swiftly, we will work with local councils to bring necessary enforcement action immediately,” said Jenrick. “It is critical those responsible for remediation take forward action at pace.”

The government has identified 143 private sector residential buildings with aluminium composite (ACM) cladding similar to Grenfell Tower’s, which have yet to be fixed.

But leaseholders who have been trying in vain for months to get freeholders to pay believe the government should step in and fund the work – a bill that could exceed £2bn.

Flat owners are facing unaffordable bills of up to £100,000 each and will rally in Westminster on Tuesday to demand action from ministers. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, are expected to attend. They lead the two cities with the most affected blocks.

A survey by property agents published on Monday showed more than half a million people are living in unsafe private apartments wrapped in combustible cladding, far higher than previous government figures have suggested.

On top of the blocks wrapped in ACM cladding identified by the government, the Association of Residential Managing Agents (Arma) believes leaseholders in another 1,375 buildings are at risk from other types of combustible cladding materials including wood and high-pressure laminate.

“The Grenfell tragedy highlighted the dangers of ACM cladding, but it has also revealed a much wider building safety crisis which could affect over half a million people,” said Nigel Glen, the chief executive of Arma.

“These buildings are being fixed by building owners and managing agents as quickly as possible but, without government support, the process could take decades and leave leaseholders with life-changing bills on top of the anxiety that has already been caused.”

Many residents with unsellable homes and soaring mortgage and insurance costs disagree that freeholders are moving fast enough to fix buildings. Leasehold agreements show costs fall on the leaseholder, not freeholder, an arrangement upheld by property tribunals. Most leaseholders, including many first-time buyers, cannot afford the bills and as a result, works to fix buildings have not been commissioned.

However, landlords, property managers and resident groups believe Jenrick’s attempts to shame freeholders will not work.

“The government saying building owners should do the right thing doesn’t help because legally the leaseholders are liable and they can’t afford it, so with the best will in the world you can’t remediate,” Glen said.

Affected leaseholders, freeholders and managing agents from across the country wrote to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, on Monday to demand funds to tackle “one of the biggest safety crises in British history”.

Rituparna Saha, a leaseholder at the affected Northpoint block in Bromley, south-east London, and founder of the UK Cladding Action Group, which signed the letter, said: “We know naming and shaming freeholders is not going to work. We know they are not legally responsible for paying for this.”

So far leaseholders in just one private building have successfully applied for full funding to fix their homes from a £200m government fund for private buildings. Social housing has been fixed more rapidly with the help of a £400m government fund, because there is no dispute over who is responsible for the safety of the homes.

There has been uncertainty about what materials will be allowed under building regulations in the future and some builders and designers are struggling to secure adequate professional indemnity insurance cover in order to carry out works.

A spokesperson for HomeGround, the company led by Astor, said it was disappointed to be named by the government. They said the freeholder had provided almost £800,000 to prevent the cost of fire safety works falling on resident, was in talks with the construction company and has applied to the government’s cladding fund for money to fix the building.

“Naming and shaming building owners, who are committed to fixing these buildings as quickly as possible, is completely counterproductive,” they said.