Government Announcement on Grenfell Tower Fire Public Inquiry Recommendations

The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Raynor today announced a full government response to the Report and Recommendation of the Grenfell Tower Fire Public Inquiry. The final report from the Grenfell Inquiry was published on 4 September 2024 and detailed the decades of short-sighted decision-making that led to 72 lives being lost in the 2017 fire.

Key recommendations from the Grenfell Inquiry included:

• Creating a single regulator for the entire construction industry who would oversee everything from construction products, fire testing, building control, and all aspects of fire safety and report to the government.
• A licensing scheme for contractors working on higher risk buildings, managed by the single regulator.
• Appointing a chief construction advisor, with committed budget and staff to comprehensively answer minister’s questions on industry issues.
• Reviewing the definition of a higher-risk building.
• An urgent review of building regulation guidance on fire safety.
• Creating a national authority to administer building control functions, stripping town halls of that power.
• The introduction of mandatory fire safety strategies for higher risk buildings.
• Regulation and mandatory accreditation of fire risk assessors.
• Requiring the Government to maintain a publicly accessible record of recommendations made by select committees, coroners and public inquiries, documenting actions taken and explanations for those not implemented.

Watch Angela Rayner deliver her Statement in the Commons earlier today: (timestamp) from 58.21 onwards on YouTube.

The full written response can be found on the government website.

The Key points from the Statement:

The government has accepted the findings and sets out its plans to act on all 58 recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Fire Inquiry final report saying the Grenfell fire was a “deadly betrayal, a national tragedy, that must never happen again”.

Reforms set out today include:

• A new single construction regulator to ensure those responsible for building safety are held to account.
• Tougher oversight of those responsible for testing and certifying, manufacturing and using construction products with serious consequences for those who break the rules.
• A legal duty of candour through a new Hillsborough Law, compelling public authorities to disclose the truth, ensuring transparency in major incidents, and holding those responsible for failures to account.
• Stronger, clearer, and enforceable legal rights for residents, making landlords responsible for acting on safety concerns.
• Empowering social housing residents to challenge landlords and demand safe, high-quality housing, by expanding the Four Million Homes training programme. Make it easier for tenants to report safety concerns and secure landlord action by taking forward the Make Things Right campaign.
• Ensuring lasting transparency and accountability by creating a publicly accessible record of all public inquiry recommendations.

Seven organisations could be banned from government contracts following their role in the Grenfell Tower disaster. The tower, in Kensington, west London, had been coated in flammable materials because of the “systematic dishonesty” of firms who made and sold the cladding and insulation, inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Brick concluded.

Ms Rayner highlighted the “blatant dishonesty and greed” of the companies responsible for the flammable materials that incased Grenfell tower. 

She said “their disgraceful mercenary behaviour put profit before people…to evade accountability with fatal consequences”.

Ms Rayner said that in future “rogue companies will be held to account”, and that the government have proposed “prison time for executives who break the rules and unlimited fines where safety is put at risk”.

In a written statement, published after Ms Rayner’s statement, the government said it intended to immediately investigate Arconic Architectural Products SAS, Saint-Gobain Construction Products UK Limited, in relation to the actions of Celotex Limited, Exoca (UK) Limited, Harley Facades Limited, Kingspan Insulation Limited, Rydon Maintenance Limited, and Studio E Architects Limited.

Some of these firms provided materials used on the exterior of Grenfell Tower, others were part of the refurbishment of the Tower before the deadly fire.

Following on from new legislation under this Labour Government, such as the Fire Safety Act and Social Housing Act, as of 1 April, Fire Functions will be moved to Rayner’s Department in line with Inquiry Recommendations.

Ms Rayner stressed that the bereaved families, survivors and members of community are:

“…still waiting for Justice they need and deserve. Justice must be done. The ongoing Met police investigation is amongst the biggest it has ever undertaken and the Met has the government’s full support. In September, the Prime Minister rightly said that this tragedy posed questions about what social justice means in Britain today. Whether the voices of working class people, those with disabilities, those of colour, are ignored and dismissed – I am here to say that we will not be that country. We will be a country where decent housing, where security, where safety, where peace of mind, are shared by all and not just the privilege of a few.”

The building safety minister, Alex Norris, said:

“The Grenfell Tower fire was a preventable tragedy, and the failings it exposed demanded fundamental change.”

“Our response today to the inquiry’s findings sets out a comprehensive plan to reform the construction sector, strengthen oversight and make sure that residents are the priority when deciding on building safety issues.

“We will continue working closely with industry, local authorities and the Grenfell community to make sure these reforms deliver real, lasting change and rebuild trust.”

Our counsel were also jointly instructed by other firms including: Graham French, Caroline Brosnan of Russell Cooke, Roisin Gadelrab of Hanover Bond Law, and Andrew Brooks of Anthony Gold.
Michael Mansfield KC, Adrian Williamson KC, Abdul-Lateef JInadu and Andrew Dymond completed the counsel team.