Building safety has been in the public and political spotlight ever since the Grenfell fire in 2017 — but government progress towards addressing the issue has been slow.
There is the Building Safety Act 2022, and publication of the second phase of the Grenfell public inquiry is expected in June. But ministers have yet to respond to a report from last April that revealed some worrying findings: up to two thirds of construction products are unregulated; product testing is often inaccurate; many products have not been tested at all; and flawed test results are being used by manufacturers to support claims that their products are suitable for high-rise development when they are not.
The Testing for a Safer Future report last year from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities set out a clear message for a tougher surveillance and enforcement regime “to ensure fair competition and the conformity of products on the market”.
In light of that report, the government has revisited its proposed construction product regulations, but regretfully there is no commitment as to when ministers will respond to the overall recommendations.
The consequences of further government inaction are potentially dire, risking another Grenfell. With that Whitehall report available, there would be blood on ministers’ hands if they continued to delay implementing its recommendations.
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The report highlights that the testing of construction products is flawed and that some products on the market do not match those tested. That is of serious concern as it means that any regulations are meaningless in respect of those products that have been and are being incorporated into buildings, many of which are places of work or homes.
The second draft regulations have not yet been published and the proposed Office for Product Safety and Standards is still in preparatory phase, meaning that we are some way from the stricter regime anticipated by Dame Judith Hackitt’s 2018 review of building regulations and fire safety and last year’s Whitehall report.
Although prohibition notices are being used under the present regime, there is an absence of prosecution, which raises the question of whether there is sufficient motivation to comply. Additionally, last year’s report pointed out gaps in the regulatory regime.
The longer it takes to fill those gaps with stronger regulations, the more likely it is that we will see problems relating to construction products that are not required to meet any present standards. And if not careful, we could find construction product issues becoming the new Post Office scandal.
John Wallace is the managing director of the law firm Ridgemont
