Building Safety Act
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Nine years ago, 72 people lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower fire. For their families, the survivors, and the wider community, no anniversary brings relief; only the renewed weight of grief and the continuing struggle for justice. We remember them today, as we do every year.
This year, for the first time, the pursuit of criminal accountability is visibly advancing. The Metropolitan Police are submitting files of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service, with decisions on potential charges expected by June 2027. Up to 57 individuals and 20 companies may face prosecution, with trials, if they proceed, expected around 2029. Nine years is already an almost unbearable wait for justice. We hope the process, when it concludes, delivers something meaningful for those who have carried this grief the longest.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the most comprehensive examination of building safety failure in this country’s history, published its final report in September 2024. Its findings were damning, confirming what many in this sector have long known: the fire was the result of decades of systemic failure across manufacturers, contractors, developers, building control, and regulation. Those findings and recommendations made by the Inquiry now sit with government and TPI will continue to engage with policymakers to ensure that recommendations affecting the property management profession and in-occupation phase are implemented.
For our members, the daily reality has not eased. TPI’s own data tells a stark story: of 511 remediation projects tracked by members in May 2026, only 13.5% had completed cladding remediation. In developer-led projects (where companies pledged to fix the buildings they built) that figure falls to just 10%. Nine years on, thousands of residents remain against their wishes in unsafe homes that they can’t sell, and many still live with defects that go beyond cladding. The building safety crisis was never only about what is on the outside of a building.
Andrew Bulmer, Chief Executive of The Property Institute, commented:
“Our data shows that in developer-pledged projects, only one in ten buildings has completed remediation. Behind that number are real people — residents who bought their homes in good faith, who cannot sell, cannot move on, and in too many cases are still living with unresolved safety risks and higher bills as a result. Nine years is too long to ask anyone to wait for a resolution.
“Our members work alongside these residents every day. They see the human cost of slow progress in ways that no statistics can capture. TPI will not stop pressing for the accountability, protection and comprehensive remediation that residents deserve — through the Remediation Bill, through our engagement with government, and through everything we do to support our members in their work to ensure buildings are safe.”
The anticipated Remediation Bill must address this in full. TPI will be pressing for legislation that holds pledged developers genuinely to account and creates a clear route to identify and fix internal fire safety defects, not just external wall systems.
But today is not primarily about legislation. It is about 72 people who lost their lives, and about the thousands still living with the consequences of what happened that night.
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The Industry Task and Finish Group (ITFG) has today (11th May 2026) published its guidance on Managing Competence in the Built Environment: An industry guide on how to meet the ICC principles, providing practical, proportionate and risk-based support for organisations operating across the built environment.
The ITFG is an industry led, time limited group formed in June 2025 in response to the new Building Safety Regime’s requirement to manage competence in organisations. It brings together more than 50 professional bodies, industry organisations, regulators and assurance bodies, with the shared aim of translating high level principles for managing competence in the built environment into a practical day to day application that is recognised across the sector and helps drive up competence and building safety outcomes.
The guidance sets out what effective organisational competence management looks like in practice for organisations of all sizes and risk profiles, SMEs, micro-businesses and large organisations alike, enabling them to demonstrate that people working for them, or on their behalf, are competent for the work they undertake.
Its flexible and proportionate approach means that the guidance can be used alongside existing management systems, or as a foundation where no formal approach is yet in place. Although prompted to meet competence management requirements set by building safety reforms in England and soon Wales, it can be used more widely as best practice guidance across the built environment all over the United Kingdom.
The guidance looks at the role of organisational leadership and governance, while emphasising that actively managing competence is not simply about qualifications or training records; it is about ensuring that organisations have enough people with the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours for their role.
Download the full Guidance document here
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Residents, industry professionals and otherstakehlders can now stay informed about building safety developments, guidance, and updates by subscribing to MHCLG’s newsletter. Sign up by clicking here
The first issue (January 2026) can be found here
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In April 2026, long-awaited regulations to improve the fire safety of disabled and vulnerable people in England’s high-rise housing will come into force.
It means those responsible for fire safety in these buildings, known as responsible persons (RPs) in law, face a raft of new duties. The Responsible Person (RP) for a block would usually be its owner or manager.
The rules will apply to two types of flats: blocks that are 18 metres or seven storeys or higher, and smaller buildings over 11 metres or five storeys that have simultaneous evacuation strategies in place.
On 2nd December 2025, MHCLG released more detailed guidance explaining the responsibilities of responsible persons, advising them how to meet these responsibilities and the role of other groups including residents and fire authorities.
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The Remediation Acceleration Plan (RAP), published on 2 December 2024, set out the government’s plans to accelerate the remediation of residential buildings with unsafe cladding in England and improve resident experience. As part of that plan, the government committed to publishing an update to report on progress and outline additional measures to support the delivery of its key objectives:
An update published today (17 July 2025) outlines the significant progress already made against these objectives and sets out a range of additional measures to fix buildings faster, identify those 11m+ buildings still at risk and ensure that residents are supported in the process. These measures will help to overcome the barriers to remediation so that residents feel safe and are safe in their homes.
To fix buildings faster, this update outlines plans to:
- Give social landlords equal access to government remediation funding as private landlords, supported by a new joint plan between government, social landlords and regulators to speed up remediation, cutting years off the time to make social tenants safe and improving resident experience before, during and after remedial works.
- Bring forward a Remediation Bill to create a hard ‘endpoint’ for remediation. A Legal Duty to Remediate will compel landlords to remediate their buildings within fixed timescales or face criminal prosecution. Avoidance is not an option. Where landlords fail, new powers - including a Remediation Backstop - will ensure the work gets done. The Bill will be brought forward as soon as parliamentary time allows.
- Tighten fire assessment standards to minimise delays to remediation start dates and provide certainty on the scope of works.
- Support the delivery of Local Remediation Acceleration Plans (LRAPs) to enhance collaborative working and expertise at regional levels, further to the over £5 million in funding already provided to metro mayors.
- Establish a National Remediation System (NRS) to serve as the single source of data for all relevant buildings over 11 metres to enhance information sharing across partner organisations.
- Building Remediation