LONDON — When the deadly Grenfell Tower blaze in 2017 led to revelations that high-rise public housing buildings across UK were wrapped in flammable cladding, the government vowed the building contractors responsible would pay for their negligence.

Seven years on, contractors who fitted cladding panels that didn't meet fire-safety standards in place when installed have largely escaped financial liability, according to a Reuters review of more than 100 buildings.

Cladding is a skin of insulating materials applied to the walls of a new or existing building to improve its thermal performance. The Grenfell Tower blaze, which killed 72 people, raised public awareness that thousands of buildings in the UK were clad in flammable materials.

To quickly tackle the problem, the British government put up much of the money to allow the replacement of flammable cladding on subsidised public housing. Then, to recoup the taxpayer money spent, the housing ministry said it would work with the buildings' owners to encourage legal claims against contractors who installed defective cladding.

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