The government's response to Phase 2 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry

On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner MP, delivered a ministerial statement on behalf of the government, in response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report. This statement was accompanied by a written response which addressed each of the recommendations from the inquiry’s report.

The government accepted the findings of the report and committed to acting on all of the recommendations, 49 of which will be implemented in full. You can find some key actions from the response below.  

Key actions from the government’s response

Resident empowerment and quality standards

• The government reaffirmed its commitment to implementing various standards including the Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements, a Competence and Conduct Standard, a new Decent Homes Standard and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards. 
• The Four Million Homes resident training programme and the Social Housing Resident Panel are being extended, and the government is taking forward the Make Things Right campaign.

Resident and building safety

• The government reiterated its commitment to bringing forward regulations that would require Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans.
• The government accepts that a review of the definition of higher-risk buildings should take place and will set out plans for a further review in summer 2025. 
• Approved Document B, the guidance that supports the implementation of fire safety aspects of the building regulations, will be placed under continuous review, and the Building Safety Regulator will launch a consultation on further changes by autumn 2025. 
• The government will legislate to require social landlords to conduct electrical safety checks at least every five years and PAT tests on electrical appliances provided by landlords.

Competence

• It will be mandatory for fire risk assessors to have their competence independently verified by a UK Accreditation Service body. 
• The government will engage with a panel of experts in the field of fire engineering to consider what should be expected of a competent fire engineer.  
• The government accepts the recommendation that a licensing scheme be introduced for principal contractors wishing to work on higher-risk buildings and will consult with industry on how best to do this.

The construction industry

• The government will take forward the recommendation for a single regulator with responsibility for construction and will consult on this in the autumn. However, it is proposed that the new regulator will not have responsibility for testing and certification of products or for issuing certificates of compliance, due to conflicts of interest. The regulator will have responsibility for investigating serious building safety incidents and this will be consulted upon in the autumn. 
• A new Chief Construction Adviser role will also be created, initially leading work with stakeholders to design the single regulator model and leading a process of shared responsibility with industry. 
• The government has published a construction products green paper, setting out proposals for system-wide reform of the construction products sector to address the systemic failures that contributed to the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.

You can read the full response on the government website. We will be in touch in the coming weeks to share more information on what these announcements mean for the sector. We are already engaging closely with the government’s remediation acceleration plan and will keep members updated on this as it develops.