Grenfell inquiry calls for far-reaching changes to UK fire regulation

A seven-year-long public inquiry into the fatal Grenfell Tower fire in London has called for fundamental changes to fire safety regulation in the UK.

On Wednesday, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry published its second and final report into the fire at Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017, which resulted in the deaths of 72 people. The Phase 2 report investigated the underlying causes of the fire, while the Phase 1 report, which was published on 30 October 2019, looked at how the fire started and spread.

The damming report, which ran to almost 1,700 pages, concluded that the 72 deaths were “avoidable” and that the government and the construction industry had failed the occupants of Grenfell Tower over a number of years. The Phase 1 report had already attributed the cause of the fire to an electrical fault in a fridge in one of the flats, and to the previous refurbishment of the tower with combustible external cladding, which enabled the fire to spread rapidly.

“We conclude that the fire at Grenfell Tower was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them,” it said.

Various government agencies, construction manufacturers, contractors and professionals contributed to the fire in one way or another, in most cases through “incompetence but in some cases through dishonesty and greed”, the report said. Consecutive governments were said to have “ignored, delayed or disregarded” concerns about the safety of industry practices.

The report also found that the system of regulating the construction and refurbishment of high-rise residential buildings that existed at the time of the Grenfell Tower fire was “seriously defective” and that regulation had become “too complex and fragmented”.

In a statement, chair of the inquiry Sir Martin Moore-Bick said: “We find that there was a failure on the part of the government and others to give proper consideration at an early stage to the dangers of using combustible materials in the walls of high-rise buildings. That included failing to amend in an appropriate way the statutory guidance on the construction of external walls. That is where the seeds of the disaster were sown.”

The report made a series of recommendations, including the appointment of a construction regulator to oversee all aspects of the construction industry, the introduction of mandatory fire safety strategies for higher-risk buildings, and a licensing scheme for contractors for the construction or refurbishment of higher-risk buildings.

It also proposed the establishment of a professional body for fire engineers, the regulation and mandatory accreditation of fire risk assessors, and the establishment of a College of Fire and Rescue to provide practical, educational and managerial training to fire and rescue services.

“We think that in different ways, implementation of our recommendations will improve fire safety, particularly in high-rise buildings, and ensure that dangerous materials cannot be used in construction in the future. They will also improve the efficiency of fire and rescue services nationally,” said Moore-Bick.

“Although some steps have already been taken to respond to the many failures we have identified, we think that more can and should be done to bring about a fundamental change in the attitudes and practices of the construction industry. Only such a change can ensure that in future buildings in general, and higher-risk buildings in particular, are safe for those who live and work in them,” he said.

With the final report published, the way is now clear for potential criminal prosecutions. Final decisions on criminal charges are expected by the end of 2026. According to Reuters, 58 people and 19 firms and organisations are under investigation by the police, including for corporate manslaughter and fraud.