The Government's response to the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 report

March 6, 2025

Rachel Murray-Smith, Richard Sharpe and Catherine Newman of Sharpe Pritchard LLP give their thoughts on the Government's response to the Grenfell Phase 2 report.

The Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 report made 58 recommendations, of which 37 were directed at the Government and 21 were directed at other bodies and institutions. As part of its response the Government has confirmed that all of the recommendations are being accepted by it and other responsible organisations.

The response sets out a series of reforms

Building safety

The Government has undertaken an initial review of the definition of a higher-risk building with the Building Safety Regulator and will set out plans on this in summer 2025.
A review of the impact of the new building regulations dutyholder regime in relation to higher-risk buildings from October 2025 and to publish its findings by Autumn 2026 including whether a licensing scheme is created on the basis of criteria aligned with the dutyholder requirements for principal contractors which “can be withdrawn for failure to achieve compliance with the regulations”.
Requirements for principal designers to sign a declaration that they have complied with their duties, including taking all reasonable steps to ensure the designs comply with building regulations when designs are submitted to the Building Safety Regulator.
A new single construction regulator who is to have oversight and responsibility across the whole building system to help prevent gaps and inconsistencies However, the new regulator will not undertake testing and certification or issue certificates of compliance for construction products however it is expected to set the rules, test and issue certificates against those rules, and ensure compliance is maintained.
A new Chief Construction Adviser to be appointed to lead and draw industry together to design the single regulator model. In addition, a new independent panel is to be created to consider how to address conflicts and commercial interests in building control and whether there needs to be an overhaul for building control decisions. Recommendations by the newly appointed panel are expected by October 2025.
A construction products green paper, has been published which sets out proposals for system-wide reform of the construction products sector. This includes changes to the Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) in order that they be licensed by the regulator to enable them to provide conformity assessment services and to be subject to a statutory code including obligations in relation to conflicts of interest and mandatory data reporting requirements. Consultation closes on 21 May 2025.
New secondary legislation to be introduced later in 2025 on residential personal emergency evacuation plans which will include “mandating building-level evacuation plans for all high-rise residential buildings, and for those medium-rise residential buildings with a simultaneous evacuation plan in place”.
Approved Document B (fire safety): the Building Safety Regulator will continue to keep statutory guidance under review with a consultation to be launched on further changes by autumn 2025.
Mandatory requirement for fire risk assessors to have the competence to perform the role by a UKAS-accredited Certification Body and further plans to be set out in relation to the role of fire engineers in driving safety in design and delivery by autumn 2025.

Sharpe Pritchard’s thoughts

The recommendations are ambitious and continue to build on legislative changes already introduced in response to the Grenfell tragedy such as the Building Safey Act 2022. The Building Safety Regulator is still trying to embed the process for the higher-risk building control gateway regime within the industry. Any substantial amendments to the definition of ‘higher-risk building’ which we can only assume will mean a reduction in the height threshold, will likely have significant implications alongside the other reforms set out, in particular, those relating to the additional obligations for certain dutyholders. The concept of a single new regulator is welcome in order to unify the sector albeit as we have seen with the Building Safety Regulator this will take time to implement and will impact productivity until the sector gains confidence in the new approach. The reforms all need to be balanced alongside the plans set out in the Remediation Acceleration Plan and further information on the reforms later in the year will need to address how this can all work in tandem.

Social Housing

New legislation will be introduced to require social landlords to carry out regular electrical safety checks at least every 5 years.
New regulations to implement Awaab’s Law in the social rented sector with a phased approach from October 2025.
A new consultation on the introduction of a new Decent Homes Standard and minimum energy efficiency standards.
Implementing a ‘Hillsborough Law’ which will place a legal duty on public servants and authorities to ensure that the truth is disclosed and prevent any cover ups.
The Regulator of Social Housing’s new Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, introduced in April 2024, will in the future create specific expectations to ensure social housing residents will have a greater voice with their landlord. The Government will extend the Four Million Homes resident training programme and will take forward the Make Things Right communications campaign, to help support residents to better understand their rights. In addition, the Social Housing Resident Panel will be extended with the intent that residents will have a greater influence on policies to improve social housing. Further information is expected as part of the Government’s long-term housing strategy expected later this year.
Review overall arrangements for the oversight of delegated management organisations, including Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs), to ensure effective oversight and accountability is in place. This will include extending the Freedom of Information Act to cover TMOs.

Sharpe Pritchard’s thoughts

The detail about implementation of long-awaited measures to improve sector performance and deliver key elements of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 is welcome. These come at a critical time when the sector is focusing resources on improving quality and safety of homes at a time of acute housing need and a desire to create more social housing. The Government consulted last year on social housing rent setting policy, amid calls from the sector for a refreshed approach in order to meet these challenges including access to grant funding for cladding remediation.

Procurement

Investigations into a number of organisations criticised by the Grenfell Inquiry, using new debarment powers in the Procurement Act 2023, to establish whether professional misconduct has taken place.

Sharpe Pritchard’s thoughts

The Procurement Act 2023 creates a new debarment list on which suppliers can be named, for up to five years, following a Government led investigation into mandatory or discretionary exclusion grounds.

If a supplier is placed on the debarment list owing to the application of a mandatory exclusion ground, contracting authorities must not allow the supplier to bid for public contracts in response to competitive processes. Whereas if the debarment relates to a discretionary exclusion ground, the supplier may be permitted to participate if the contracting authority has good reasons for allowing them to do so.

This announcement highlights the importance the Government is placing on the new debarment list. The outcome of these investigations will help to set a benchmark for the sector to be able to understand how the new mandatory and discretionary grounds are to be interpreted. What is clear is that there is a drive to hold entities to account. It will also be interesting to see if licences issued under the licensing scheme proposed for principal contractors will be automatically revoked for organisations that are subsequently added to the debarment list or deny any license at all.

We assume that the introduction of a licensing scheme for principal contractors may see the requirement for contracting authorities to assess competency as part of their procurement processes fall away.

Timings

Implementation is to be completed in phases being:

Phase 1 - 2025-2026: The Government’s focus during 2025 and 2026 is delivering on its current programme of reform and change related to improvements with building safety. This includes driving forward the Remediation Acceleration Plan together with any associated legislation to enable this.

Phase 2 – 2026-2028: Further development and legislation to enable and deliver on the wider reforms and recommendations set out in its response including those reforms relating to the construction products sector and the single new construction regulator.

Phase 3 – 2028 onwards: Implementation of the reforms and continuous review of the new systems in place to measure effectiveness and ensure that building safety is maintained.

Rachel Murray-Smith, Richard Sharpe and Catherine Newman are Partners at Sharpe Pritchard LLP.

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