Government issues first progress report on Grenfell Phase 2 recommendations

The Government expects that it will take at least four years for all of the recommendations to be completed, in the main due to the need for primary legislation, which is subject to Parliamentary time.

Some of the recommendations will be completed within months, such as the Machinery of Government, which requires administrative change, and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (recommendations 31, 32 and 33), which were already being addressed before the completed Phase 2 report saw the light of day.

Other recommendations require reviews, consultation and legislative change, which will take longer. Consultations for recommendations such as the creation of the single construction regulator and the College of Fire and Rescue will begin after the summer. These recommendations must go through consultation before they can be considered for legislation.

For those recommendations that require primary legislation, there’s a necessity to bid for Parliamentary time. Wherever possible, the Government will explore quicker ways in which to implement recommendations.

Construction industry

The Government will appoint a chief construction advisor as soon as possible. The intention is to engage an interim advisor promptly in advance of a permanent appointment next year. Outreach with potential candidates for the role of interim advisor has begun and the plan is to announce a successful candidate by this coming summer.

The chief construction advisor will provide independent advice to ministers, working with Government and industry to rebuild trust in the built environment. The appointed individual will work closely with industry to drive change across the sector. The initial priority shall be to help shape the design and implementation of the single construction regulator.  

Machinery of Government  

The Prime Minister announced in February that responsibility for all Home Office fire functions would transfer to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This decision took effect through a formal machinery of government change on 1 April, with fire functions and building safety now reporting to one Secretary of State.

At present, officials working on fire safety remain in the Home Office, but report to the Deputy Prime Minister. The expectation is that work on the transfer is to be completed in 2025.

Fire and Rescue Service

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) developed an action and delivery plan in April, which will be shared more widely with key stakeholders. To inform this plan, the NFCC has surveyed Fire and Rescue Services to establish a baseline position regarding the recommendations. The NFCC is currently assessing responses to determine where there are gaps and need for support.

Response and recovery

The government is committed to increasing the resilience of the UK to a range of risks and major disruptions the country could face. The Cabinet Office is working with organisations nationally and locally to review what’s working well to improve resilience and consider what needs to be done differently. The outcome of this work will be published through the Government’s resilience strategy following the Spending Review on 11 June.

Progress to date includes the launch of the UK Resilience Academy in April to improve the consistency, quality and availability of resilience training. The Academy will build resilience skills across society, training over 4,000 individuals per annum in resilience and emergency roles.

For the first time, this is based on independently reviewed and published National Occupational Standards which set clear expectations of the knowledge and skills required in resilience roles.

Vulnerable individuals

Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans will mandate that the building owner or manager engages with their vulnerable residents, considers how to improve their fire safety and evacuation, enables all residents to understand what they should do in the event of a fire, give Fire and Rescue Services personnel information in case they need to support their evacuation and mandate building-level evacuation plans for these buildings.   

The Government will lay Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans-focused secondary legislation, which will apply to all high-rise residential buildings and medium-rise residential buildings with simultaneous evacuation strategies in place. This secondary legislation will be laid later in 2025. 

The Government has committed funding for 2025-2026 to begin this important work by supporting social housing providers to deliver Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans for their renters. Future years’ funding will be confirmed at the Spending Review.

Guidance will be produced subsequent to the laying of the regulations and following input from stakeholders (including disability groups) on the draft.

The Government is also developing a toolkit to support ‘Responsible Persons’ in their implementation of Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans.