Kent County Council is to carry out urgent tests on 155 buildings it is responsible for after the Grenfell blaze tragedy.

The council says it has identified the buildings as all having some form of cladding although it has yet to be established what type it is and what material it consists of.

The council leader Paul Carter said that as things stood, it was not yet known whether the buildings on the list are considered unsafe or a risk. The list has not been made public.

But he indicated that some care homes were among the properties after telling a cabinet meeting today that he wanted the buildings where the most vulnerable people were to be given priority.

He said: “We need to move very quickly on that list of 155 buildings and do a risk assessment of the most likely and where potentially the most vulnerable individuals are using those building. I am looking particularly at residential care homes to make sure they are tested early on.”

KCC began an audit of some 500 buildings after the Grenfell tragedy.

Cllr Carter said: “I have had the initial report which concludes we have 155 buildings that have cladding of some nature.

"The government is very much asking us to focus on buildings that are higher than ten storeys.

"I think we need to look at all of our buildings that have cladding similar in design and nature to those buildings that have so far failed the tests that were carried out in the last few days.”

He said he wanted the authority to work with Kent Fire and Rescue to find out “what tests have been conducted on what building products and what is the failure of those products”.

He added: “We need to look at those 155 buildings and find out whether tests that have failed match the materials used in those buildings.”

Testing would get underway today, he said. Public buildings such as offices, schools and libraries - as well as residential care homes - all needed to be examined, he added.

The authority needed to act fast to check materials in KCC buildings that had failed recent tests elsewhere, he added.