At least 12 people were killed in the fire at London's Grenfell Tower on Wednesday, with indications the building's flammable aluminium cladding contributed to the inferno.

It is believed that a similar type of combustible cladding contributed to a blaze at an apartment block in Melbourne's docklands in 2014.

The executive director of Master Builders ACT, Kirk Coningham, said the territory typically had very strong building regulations in place to prevent fires.

However, there were risks with the import of "counterfeit" building materials that claimed to be safe when they were not, he said.

"I think that the ACT is well served for a few reasons. One is that we don't have a whole lot of residential stock anyway," said Mr Coningham.

"And the modern buildings are controlled by a very strong fire code.

"But the weakness in our systems is the use of non-conforming products.

"In the ACT it's against the law for a developer to require a building to use such a product. There is legislation in place to control this.

"But the risk to the system is when these products are falsely labelled."

Preventing the risk posed by such problems needed to tackled on a nationwide level by the Commonwealth government, Mr Coningham said.

"I think the events in England yesterday are a sad, tragic reminder, but a good wake-up call to keep the focus on exactly what can happen if you use the wrong product.

"It's certainly the chink in the armour within Australia and the ACT."

He added that he would not be surprised if similar risky materials had been used at some point in the ACT.

"It is unlikely but I wouldn't be surprised.

"We know that these products can and have gotten through."

Just last week Australia's peak fire safety body criticised the lack of inspections within Canberra.

"If routine services are not conducted, then there is the risk that protection expected by the fire safety system won't be delivered in the event of an emergency," said Matthew Wright from the Fire Protection Association.

"That could end in a lot of damage and the fire spreading, or worse, injuries and fatalities."

This was a call echoed on Thursday by Gary Petherbridge of the ACT Owners Corporation Network.

"They don't exercise the regulations. No one actually comes and checks," he said.

Canberra-based TT Architecture's Tony Trobe said the use of cladding was extensive in the ACT.

"People use it all the time, it's a great product," Mr Trobe said.

Mr Trobe said the issue was whether the composite inside used the more combustible plastic composite.

Territory Planning Minister Mick Gentleman's office was contacted for comment but failed to respond before deadline