The Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 was a preventable tragedy that claimed 72 innocent lives. This tragedy was the consequence of profound failures within the system of oversight. People should have been protected. This Government recognise those failures and is putting in place the reforms needed to prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring again, and to create the conditions for the safe, affordable housing that we need.
Throughout this work, we have listened closely to the bereaved, survivors and the wider community, whose experiences continue to shape our reforms. But we know there is more to do to ensure every resident feels safe in their home and can trust those responsible for building and maintaining their homes. In February 2025, the Government accepted all the inquiry’s findings and committed to taking forward each of the 58 phase 2 recommendations. One year on, my Department has today laid the first annual report, setting out the progress made on those recommendations and the wider programme of policy reform delivered during the past year.
Alongside the annual report, we have laid the construction products reform White Paper, the general safety requirement consultation document, and published a statement from the interim chief construction adviser.
These publications and announcements demonstrate the Government’s ongoing work and firm commitment to deliver the lasting, systemic change that we need—the foundation for the safe, affordable homes that people deserve.
Construction products reform White Paper
In February 2025, the Government published the construction products reform Green Paper and committed to system-wide reform of the construction products sector. Fundamental reform, ensuring robust and accountable oversight, is essential to delivering meaningful change; ensuring safe and high-quality homes, buildings and infrastructure; and maintaining resilient supply chains.
Today, we have laid a White Paper that outlines an ambitious programme of system-wide reform. We will address regulatory gaps and long-standing issues in the construction products sector, where too little has changed since Grenfell.
We will establish a trusted, proportionate regulatory framework that ensures construction products are safe, and used safely. This will support long-term growth and contribute to the delivery of more, safer homes in the years to come.
The White Paper confirms the direction set out in the Green Paper and provides further detail on a range of proposed reforms, alongside a pathway for implementation. These include measures to strengthen the regulatory regime for construction products; enhance oversight of testing and certification processes; improve information requirements, digitisation and traceability; and reinforce the role and powers of the national products regulator to drive effective enforcement.
Consultation on the White Paper will run until 20 May 2026. We encourage as many responses as possible and welcome continued engagement from across the sector to support the progress of system-wide reform of the construction products regime.
General safety requirement consultation
The White Paper also paves the way for the introduction of a general safety requirement. The aim of the GSR is to bring currently unregulated products into the construction products regulatory regime. The regulations will require that construction products placed on the market are safe and will set out specific obligations for businesses. They will also provide the national regulator for construction products with the enforcement powers necessary to uphold these obligations.
We are consulting on the detail of a proposed GSR to ensure that it is proportionate to risk, practical to implement, enforceable, and aligned with broader Government policy on product safety and growth. This consultation will run until 20 May 2026.
Guidance to support businesses in meeting their obligations will be issued by the national regulator for construction products.
Grenfell Tower memorial expenditure legislation
We have also determined that we need to ask Parliament to pass a law to provide the statutory spending authority to support the creation of a Grenfell Tower memorial. We will introduce this imminently. This does not affect any of the current work on the Grenfell Tower site, and the memorial commission and the community will continue to take the lead in shaping a fitting and lasting memorial.
Throughout this work, one principle will guide all decisions: the voices of the bereaved, survivors and immediate community must remain at the heart of decisions, now and in the future.
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