Grenfell Report confirms urgent need for action on safety-critical steels

Sweeping reforms of the “flawed and outdated” construction safety supply processes identified in the Grenfell fire inquiry final report are “urgently needed” CARES said today.

Setting out its initial response to the government’s Green Paper on Construction Products Reform, published in the wake of the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 Report, CARES urged manufacturers, processors and other stakeholders engaged in the reinforcing steels sector to back wholesale change in the regulatory regime covering product assurance and certification.

CARES Chief Executive Lee Brankley has now written an open letter to all CARES clients encouraging them to review the green paper. In it he urges them to respond to the ongoing consultation on a range of proposed government measures set out in response to the inquiry’s 58 recommendations – designed to establish a “more robust and trusted regulatory system.”

Confirming that CARES had already held high-level ministerial discussions in the wake of the inquiry’s final report, Mr Brankley stressed that CARES is “fully behind any steps which address the flawed and outdated processes and behaviours so shockingly revealed at the inquiry.”

He confirmed that Immediate steps include a rigorous review of the CARES Steel for the Reinforcement of Concrete (SRC) scheme requirements, in order to confirm that “CARES’ role in the testing, certification and assurance of construction products ensures only safe products are used.”

A key priority for CARES remains the need to close the regulatory gap covering safety-critical reinforcing steels entering major UK construction supply projects. “This is an urgently needed reform, and we have repeatedly pressed for this change at the highest level.”

With consultation now underway around the green paper’s proposals it was “vital” that responsible partners across the sector seized the opportunity to engage, before the consultation closes on 21 May, he added.

The fire which destroyed the residential block claimed 72 lives and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has confirmed that the tower will now be sensitively dismantled, with a “fitting memorial” to those lost to be established on the site.

Further details of the green paper can be found here.