Kent County Council is to carry out precautionary checks on more than 400 buildings it has responsibility for in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Although the council has no housing it has a large number of other buildings, such as offices, schools, libraries, care centres and other community centres.

These are subject to regular fire inspections but the council said it was to carry out a review and make additional checks.

In a statement, the council said it had “instigated a review of its assets”.

The spokesman continued: “Kent County Council is not responsible for housing which is a district council responsibility.

"We do, however, take matters such as fire safety very seriously. We keep up to date with fire risk assessments for the buildings for which the council has management responsibility and ensure that any building works comply with the relevant fire regulations."

The council said it had a “diverse portfolio” of properties across the county, adding: “We undertake a rolling programme of risk assessments to identify any unacceptable fire risks and undertake remedial measures where necessary.

"Following the incident at Grenfell Tower, the county council has instigated a further review of its assets.”

The government has asked all councils to check properties with similar cladding to Grenfell.

Thanet council said that East Kent Housing, which manages social housing, was carrying out a full review of property where there was cladding.

In a statement it said each property had an up-to-date fire risk assessment in place and any works agreed with the fire service are completed.

A spokesman said: “A number of blocks in Thanet have been over clad and we are reviewing the work that has been undertaken.

"We can confirm that this work did not use the same rain-screen type of system that was used at Grenfell Tower. A full review of cladding materials, where these are in place, will be carried out by East Kent Housing.”

Residents were being assured that the material used for cladding was different to the one used for the Grenfell block.