General Debate on building safety and resilience

Background

On 4 September 2024, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry published its final report into the fire that killed 72 people at Grenfell Tower in London on 14 June 2017. This public inquiry concluded 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”.

On the same day as the report was published, the Prime Minister stated that the government would look at the inquiry’s 58 recommendations in detail and respond in full within six months. He also said that there would be a debate on the floor of the House.

Since the fire, there have been various investigations, select committee inquiries and changes to legislation, including the Building Safety Act 2022. Relevant briefings are provided below.

Relevant Library publications

Fire safety rules for blocks of flats since the Grenfell Tower fire (England) (14 May 2024)

Fire safety in houses and flats (2 May 2024)

Building regulations and safety (8 July 2024)

Help with paying for historical fire safety work: high-rise blocks (England) (29 August 2023)

Leasehold high-rise flats: Who pays for fire safety work? (23 October 2023)

The Cladding External Wall System (EWS) (5 June 2023)

Background briefings on the Building Safety Act 2022:

• Building Safety Bill (16 July 2021)
• Building Safety Bill: committee stage (17 January 2022)
• Building Safety Bill: Lords amendments (14 April 2022)

Grenfell Tower Fire: Background (20 January 2020)

Relevant external publications

Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report (September 2024) and Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Report (October 2019)

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release – 31 July 2024, 22 August 2024. Note from the Library: This data release reports on buildings with unsafe cladding whose remediation progress is being monitored by the department. At the end of July 2024, the department was monitoring 4,630 residential buildings of which 3,280 (70%) had yet to complete remediation.

UK Health Security Agency, Environmental monitoring following the Grenfell Tower fire, updated 5 September 2024

National Audit Office, Investigation into remediating dangerous cladding on high-rise buildings, June 2020

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: Hackitt review (18 May 2018)

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government reports from the Independent Grenfell Recovery Taskforce:

• Initial report from the Independent Grenfell Recovery Taskforce, November 2017 
• Second report from the Independent Grenfell Recovery Taskforce, March 2018
• Third report from the Independent Grenfell Recovery Taskforce, December 2018
• Fourth report from the Independent Grenfell Recovery Taskforce, July 2019 

Select committee evidence sessions, reports and government responses

Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, Fire Safety, November 2023 to May 2024 (transcripts of evidence sessions and correspondence from the government)

Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, Building safety: remediation and funding – government response to the Select Committee reports, May 2022

Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, Building Safety: Remediation and Funding, Seventh Report of Session 2021–22, March 2022

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Cladding Remediation— Follow-up, Seventh Report of Session 2019-21, April 2021

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Sixteenth report from Session 2019-21, PDF, November 2020

Public Accounts Committee, Progress in remediating dangerous cladding, Sixteenth Report of Session 2019-21, September 2020

Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Government response to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee report on Cladding: Progress of Remediation, September 2020

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Cladding: progress of remediation, Second Report of Session 2019-21, June 2020

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Local authority support for Grenfell Tower survivors, June 2018 (transcripts of evidence sessions and correspondence from the government)

Other recent parliamentary and press coverage is attached.