The Building Ministers Forum has agreed “a range of measures” to address safety concerns associated with non-compliant building cladding on high-rise buildings.

The forum, comprising Commonwealth, state and territory ministers responsible for building regulation, met at the Gold Coast on Friday, shortly after the Victorian Building Authority (VBA) released the findings of its audit into 170 Melbourne CBD properties.

The audit, prompted by a devastating fire at the Lacrosse apartments in Docklands in November 2014, found 51% of buildings checked feature non-compliant cladding.

It has also been claimed such cladding may be present in 2500 Sydney buildings, and there is a “flammable cladding crisis” in Queensland.

Aside from Victoria, WA is the only other state to have carried out an official audit, with officials saying no issues of concern were discovered in Perth.

“Ministers agreed to work co-operatively to implement a range of measures to address safety issues associated with high-risk building products,” a communiqué from Friday’s forum says.

“In particular, ministers agreed in principle that the Australian Building Codes Board will support measures to address risks specifically associated with cladding used in high-rise buildings.”

The National Construction Code will be reviewed and intergovernmental co-operation improved, the statement says.

Industry and consumer awareness of the issues will also be enhanced.

In-principle support was also given to enhancing powers of building regulators to respond to non-conforming products.

A further report will be provided to the next forum.

The Fire Protection Association Australia says the VBA audit highlights “a legacy of neglect”.

“To have non-compliance at this level clearly shows there has been no incentive for building practitioners to comply with the rules, and no enforcement to ensure they do so,” CEO Scott Williams said.

“We are pleased these dangerous non-compliances have now been revealed, but this level of non-compliance of a single building element begs the question: what other non-compliances exist and why has ongoing auditing and enforcement not occurred as a routine program to monitor the industry?”