Last year, the Scottish Government announced that it had reached an agreement with developers to assess and, if necessary, make safe more than 100 buildings that are being assessed for dangerous cladding.

Responding to a question from Kaukab Stewart MSP, Humza Yousaf said he would resort to legal means to get the work done if there is an “immediate fire risk”.

Ms Stewart, the SNP MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, said she has spoken extensively with residents about the issues they are facing.

She said: “Many have had to put their lives on hold while they await remedial works being carried out.

“Meantime, they are living in a building with unsafe cladding, many are finding it nearly impossible to sell or even re-mortgage.”

She added: “People’s lives have been put on hold and some of them are at the end of their tether.

“Local authorities are asking for building warrants for remediation work, developers are putting safety measures in place that are severely imposing on the lives of people living in these buildings.

“And yet many residents and my constituents feel that remediation is not moving quickly enough.”

Mr Yousaf responded: “As assessments are completed, we will agree plans and take action to deliver full remediation.

“That means that I also expect developers to take responsibility to remediate their buildings where the public purse is not needed to do so. I urge them to do so voluntarily, but we will use all the levers at our disposal, including legislation if necessary, to remediate buildings and protect residents.”

The First Minister added that he expected the majority of the 105 buildings in the programme to be assessed as safe but “if the assessment identifies an immediate fire risk, we will act without delay, as we have already done”.