Southwark Council has said the incorrect claim it had carried out the most stringent fire risk assessments on all 174 of its tower blocks, when it had done just eight, was the result of a typo.

The council has attributed the claim, which appeared in a report presented to the council’s cabinet last week, to a “drafting error” after a Freedom of Information request to the council made by campaigners revealed only eight tower blocks had undergone an intrusive fire risk assessment (FRA).

But in a separate letter to residents in July 2017, MP for Camberwell and Peckham Harriet Harman also claimed the council would have completed the type 4 fire safety checks on all 174 tower blocks by the end of August 2017.

A type 1 FRA is carried out on all Southwark Housing stock, but only inspects common areas.

Southwark Council had previously committed to undertaking type 4 FRAs on all 174 tower blocks, which inspects all parts of a building.

Ledbury Action Group co-founder Danielle Gregory, who made the FOI request, said the mistake was “concerning” as it gave false information to elected representatives and residents.

“I think it is very hard for me to digest that they have made that kind of mistake,” she said.

“The concerning part is that if it’s a cabinet report, how many other things are they making mistakes on?

“People are living in tower blocks and will be thinking it has had this check and it hasn’t.

“There are lots of questions that stem out of this. It leads to questioning the whole process and is very worrying,” she explained.

Cllr Stephanie Cryan, cabinet member for housing management and modernisation, said: “As stated in our FOI response, our fire risk assessment programme goes above and beyond requirements.

“The wording used in the capital monitoring report included a drafting error and should have read ‘is undertaking’ rather than ‘has undertaken’. I apologise if this was confusing.

“All the council’s housing has live, up-to-date fire risk assessments in place, and a rolling programme of updating them continues.

“Furthermore, we have committed to carry out type 4 FRAs – the highest level of intrusive fire risk assessment on all 174 tower blocks, and over time on all our blocks.

“However, this work does and will take time. We include fire risk work as part of major works programme in order to cause the least disruption and expense as possible to tenants and leaseholders.

“The extra type 4 FRA work, which is not a statutory requirement and which needs to be ongoing as a live project, has already begun,” she said.