By STEWART PATERSON

Political Correspondent

THE Government said it was left with “more questions than answers” after Glasgow City Council responded with information about ‘Grenfell style’ cladding on city high rise flats.

The council faced strong criticism from MSPs as the handling of the request for details of cladding was branded “shocking and unacceptable” by Labour and Conservative MSPs and records were labelled a “sorry mess” by SNP MSP, Bob Doris.

Yesterday the Evening Times revealed how a council official said there was 57 privately owned buildings in the city with the cladding.

The council refused twice before finally accepting ministers’ offer of help, on the same day as the cladding information was revealed to a Holyrood committee.

In June the Scottish Government Ministerial Working group wrote to all councils asking for information on combustible cladding in private blocks.

By August 9 every council except Glasgow and Edinburgh responded to say they had no such cladding.

Both councils were offered support to gather the information Edinburgh accepted and later confirmed there was no cladding and Glasgow declined.

On August 17 the government asked Glasgow again about a response and again offered support which was also declined.

On September 4 a further e-mail was sent from the government and the council responded the following evening with a table of information.

The government said it was incomplete and requested information was unclear or missing.

The offer of help was again made and was accepted on Wednesday of this week.

Labour MSP, Pauline McNeil, asked an Urgent Question on the news that 57 buildings had the cladding.

She said failure to inform residents before it became public it was a “monumental error” and showed an”unacceptable level of complacency” from Glasgow City Council.

Communities Minister, Angela Constance, said the response by the council was incomplete.

She said there was gaps in the information relating to the cladding, if it was ACM, where it was on the buildings, or if plans had been retrieved.

She said: “The Ministerial Working Group was left with more questions than answers similar to the Local Government Committee.”

She added: “ It took until the third offer before the city council accepted the help.”

The council has still not informed residents in the properties as it said the information is not yet complete.

In a letter to the Local Government Committee, Council leader, Susan Aitken, said the council would inform residents “when the additional information has been gathered”.

Ms Aitken said she has instructed council officers to take up the Government’s offer of support and to liaise with the fire service to discuss inspections of the properties.

She said: “I understand the intention of the Ministerial Working Group was always to ensure that residents in the properties with ACM cladding would be made aware of this once any implications for owners and residents were known.”