IN Brief:
- Nine further Grenfell Inquiry recommendations have been completed since the government’s May progress report.
- Thirty of 61 tracked Phase 2 and outstanding Phase 1 recommendations are now recorded as complete.
- Construction regulation, product reform, professional competence, and remediation remain substantial parts of the unfinished programme.
The government has completed nine more recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry since May, taking the number recorded as complete to 30 while a larger block of construction-sector reforms remains in progress.
The latest update covers 61 recommendations: 58 from the Inquiry’s Phase 2 report and three outstanding Phase 1 recommendations. Thirty are complete and 31 remain in progress, with the government maintaining its target of implementing the full programme by the end of 2029 where legislation, institutional change, and technical work are still required.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published the September progress report alongside the final report from interim Chief Construction Adviser Thouria Istephan. Her 12-month term has concentrated on construction-product regulation, professional standards, near-miss reporting, and the structure needed for a permanent construction advisory function inside government.
The construction-industry strand remains the least complete of the four themes covered in the update. Nine of 28 recommendations are recorded as complete and 19 remain in progress, compared with nine of 13 completed for fire and rescue services, seven of 14 for response and recovery, and five of six for vulnerable people and outstanding Phase 1 measures.
A central part of the unfinished programme is the creation of a Single Construction Regulator. The Building Safety Regulator became an arm’s-length body sponsored by MHCLG in January, and staff transferred from the Health and Safety Executive in June, but the broader regulatory model still requires further development before the Inquiry’s recommendation can be treated as fully implemented.
The permanent construction-adviser role is also still being established. Recruitment for a Chief Construction and Scientific Adviser is under way, with an appointment expected before the end of 2026. That post is intended to advise ministers on building regulations, statutory guidance, and wider construction issues while also contributing to the design of the single-regulator model.
Construction products remain another substantial workstream. Government has consulted on reforms covering product testing, certification, information, standards, and products that currently sit outside parts of the existing regulatory system. Responses to the Construction Products Reform White Paper and the proposed General Safety Requirement are due to shape the next stage of that programme.
Professional competence is developing in parallel. A Fire Engineers Transitional Board is in place, £13m has been made available to higher education institutions to expand fire-engineering teaching and research capacity, and proposals for mandatory accreditation of fire-risk assessors have been consulted on. These measures sit alongside continuing work on the way competence is assessed across building-control and fire-safety roles.
The government is also reviewing Approved Document B and the wider structure of building-regulations guidance. More than 500 responses have been submitted to the regulator’s consultation on changes to Approved Document B, with recommendations expected in 2027 as part of a broader review of statutory guidance.
Those reforms are being developed while the regulatory system is already carrying a larger live workload. Gateway 2 application volumes and change-control work have continued to increase, leaving designers, contractors, building-control professionals, and the regulator to operate within rules that are still being refined after the Building Safety Act.
Remediation adds another layer. The programme created after Grenfell has to improve future regulation while unsafe existing buildings are being investigated, designed, procured, and remediated under the current regime. Changes to products, competence, building-control processes, and regulatory responsibilities therefore have to operate alongside thousands of live projects rather than after remediation is complete.
Istephan’s final report places particular emphasis on evidence, near misses, and the ability of construction professionals to report concerns before they become failures. The approach pushes building safety beyond formal compliance at approval points and towards a system in which product evidence, professional accountability, technical learning, and regulator oversight are expected to operate throughout design and construction.
The September report also shows why implementation will extend well beyond a single legislative change. Several of the remaining recommendations depend on new law, while others require changes to regulatory bodies, professional structures, technical guidance, and industry practice. Moving one element without the supporting structures would leave many of the interfaces criticised by the Inquiry intact.
By the end of 2026, the programme is expected to have a permanent Chief Construction and Scientific Adviser appointed and further decisions on construction-product reform and regulatory structure. Approved Document B work then continues into 2027, while the wider Grenfell implementation timetable runs to the end of 2029.
The headline count has moved from 21 completed recommendations in May to 30 in September, but most of the remaining construction recommendations concern the way the industry is regulated, how competence is demonstrated, and how technical evidence is handled. The next phase will therefore depend on whether those institutional reforms can be made to work across projects already moving through design, building control, construction, and remediation.
