Corporate report

Progress report May 2026: summary update

Published 20 May 2026

Overview

Last updated: 20 May 2026

Theme	Number of recommendations	In progress	Complete
The construction industry	28	20	8
Fire and rescue services	13	9	4
Response and recovery	14	9	5
Vulnerable people and Phase 1 recommendations	6	2	4
Total	61	40	21

Introduction

This is the government’s fourth progress update on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Phase 2 recommendations. 

This progress report has been published alongside the: 

• College of Fire and Rescue consultation 
• Call for evidence on the scope of building professions, trades and occupations
• Building control independent panel report and government response
• Public engagement policy 
• Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) research on construction products 

Since the Annual Report published in February 2026, we have completed a further 9 recommendations. Recommendations 22, 23, 27 and 28 are related to the construction industry, and 51, 52, 53, 54 and 55 are related to response and recovery. 

We remain committed to acting on all 58 recommendations and addressing the findings of the Inquiry. 

Timeline for delivery 

We continue to expect that all recommendations will be implemented by the end of 2029. This is because some actions require new legislation to be introduced in Parliament. Delivery is ongoing across remaining recommendations. 

The implementation timeline has been updated to reflect our latest milestones and delivery plans. 

Update on wider reform 

Remediation acceleration plan (RAP) 

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) monitors the remediation progression of residential buildings that are over 11 metres tall and have unsafe cladding. As of March 2026, MHCLG was monitoring 4,322 of these buildings.  

This is estimated to be between 50% to 76% of the residential buildings expected to be included in MHCLG’s remediation programmes.  

Overall, remediation works have been started on 2,399 buildings (56% of monitored buildings). Remediation works have been completed on 1,531 buildings (35% of monitored buildings).  

This includes progress on: 

• high rise buildings (over 18 metres tall) 
• mid-rise buildings (between 11 to 18 metres tall) 

Higher-risk regime 

We are reviewing elements of the higher-risk ‎building control regime to make sure it is applied in a proportionate way. We want a regime ‎that strikes the right balance between: 

• ensuring robust oversight of safety critical works 

• ‎enabling building works to proceed efficiently and without undue delays  

• avoiding excessive ‎documentation burdens on applicants 

Our aim is to maintain the safety principles that are the ‎core intention of the higher-risk building control regime. A proportionate approach is not a ‎compromise on safety.  ‎  

The higher-risk building control regime was introduced to ensure safety and standards are built ‎into the entire lifecycle of a building. However, it has become clear some aspects of the regime are not working as ‎intended. We know that some parts of the ‎regime are considered disproportionate and may be making it less efficient. ‎ 

We are currently consulting on proposals to change how certain small-scale building work is ‎handled within the higher-risk building regime and the wider building control system. This consultation ‎on the categorisation of higher-risk building work launched on 26 March and will be open ‎until 28 May 2026. 

A ‎consultation on telecommunications work also ran from 27 January to 24 March 2026. We expect to publish the government’s response in the coming months. 

Social housing reforms 

We are continuing to review the Right to Manage regulations and guidance, which govern the establishment, operation and oversight of Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs). During March and April 2026, we convened an expert steering group to help us assess how more tenants can be encouraged and supported to use the Right to Manage to take control of their housing management with appropriate support and oversight. The review is exploring issues with the regulatory framework which may impede the effective operation and oversight of TMOs, and assessing how we can encourage the establishment of new TMOs. 

We are taking a number of other steps to support social housing providers to work with tenants to improve the quality of their housing services and engagement with tenants. On 2 April 2026 the Social Housing Innovation Fund issued £2 million in grant funding to 20 organisations to develop and test innovative approaches to resident engagement. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Baroness Taylor, has hosted a roundtable with tenant, landlord and sector representatives to explore how tenants, social landlords and government can work together to tackle the stigma some residents face. 

Tenant engagement is an important part of our work to make sure residents’ voices are heard as decisions are made on social housing policy. Some of the ways we are engaging with residents include: 

• a social housing Resident Stakeholder Forum 

• our Resident Panel 

The Resident Panel recently met with Baroness Taylor and discussed housing accessibility and service charges. 

We are taking forward the commitment to extend the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs). This is intended to strengthen transparency and accountability by ensuring tenants of TMOs have the same statutory rights to access information about the management of their housing as other local authority tenants. We recently ran a targeted consultation on the proposals directly with TMOs, which closed on 8 May 2026. We will carefully review the consultation responses before setting out next steps. 

The government is committed to keeping the regulatory and redress system for the social housing sector under review and, as part of this commitment, has commissioned a 4‑year evaluation of recent reforms designed to improve the quality of social homes and empower social tenants. The evaluation will draw on a broad range of departmental and sector data to analyse and report on the effectiveness of the reforms implemented by government and how impactful these have been for tenants.

Transparency and oversight

In March 2026, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) held oral evidence sessions. The government has submitted evidence as part of this and will remain engaged with this process. The following is a reminder of the update provided in February’s Annual Report. 

Both government and parliament have important roles in providing oversight, accountability and scrutiny.

What government is doing

The government recognises that in the past inquiry recommendations have been made and accepted but not implemented. In July 2025 we launched the first Public Inquiries: Recommendations and the Government Response dashboards, to track the implementation of recommendations. The dashboards will be updated and continue to evolve to include all inquiries from 2024 onwards, and refreshed quarterly. dashboards will be an enduring mechanism for monitoring and tracking government implementation of inquiry recommendations. They It will allow the public to track the progress of implementation and ensure inquiry recommendations do not get lost. This commitment to transparency enhances both public scrutiny and accessibility in line with this recommendation. This recommendation is now closed and has been fully discharged.  

The government is continuing to explore ways to improve transparency and accountability of recommendations made to it by public inquiries. We will continue to listen to the views of groups which have been impacted by public inquiries so that the government’s progress toward implementing of inquiry recommendations is properly scrutinise.

What Parliament is doing

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) and the Liaison Committee are undertaking work to consider how Parliamentary oversight of recommendations can be strengthened. The report from the Infected Blood Inquiry includes recommendations for Parliament on two key areas: how to respond to calls for public inquiries and how to scrutinise the implementation of recommendations resulting from future inquiries. As a result, in December 2025 PACAC launched an inquiry that will examine those issues to inform consideration of the broader recommendations from the Infected Blood Inquiry and to guide the approach to other future inquiries.

Summary update on recommendations

This section gives a summary update of the work that has been done to deliver recommendations since the Annual Report in February 2026. It is grouped by the themes used by the Inquiry. 

You can find detailed updates on all recommendations using the following links: 

• the construction industry 
• fire and rescue services
• response and recovery
• vulnerable people and Phase 1 recommendations

The construction industry 

Single Construction Regulator 

In January 2026, the Building Safety Regulator was established as a new arm’s-length body of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It was previously part of the Health and Safety Executive. This is an important step towards implementing the recommendation from the Inquiry to reduce fragmentation with the formation of a Single Construction Regulator. 

On 17 December 2025, we published the Single Construction Regulator Prospectus: Consultation Document. The prospectus confirmed the government’s commitment to the Inquiry recommendation and set out our ambition to go beyond this as we deliver the single regulator. The prospectus consultation closed on 20 March 2026. We are currently analysing the detail in these responses. We plan to publish a government response to the consultation by June 2026. 

Approved documents 

On 25 March 2026, the Building Safety Regulator published a consultation seeking views on proposed changes to the statutory fire safety guidance in Approved Document B. The consultation is open until 1 July 2026. 

Construction products reform

In February 2026, the government published the Construction Products Reform White Paper. The white paper confirms commitment to long term system-wide reform and responds to the green paper consultation (published in February 2025). The white paper sets out how government is taking forward Inquiry recommendations 13, 14 and 24. 

To drive the pace of reform, the government has consulted in parallel on a general safety requirement to bring unregulated products into the regulatory regime. 

Both consultations will close on 20 May 2026, following which we will analyse responses and set out next steps.

Fire risk assessors 

On 26 March 2026, we published a consultation as part of our commitment to introduce mandatory certification for fire risk assessors in response to recommendation 26. The consultation will run for 12 weeks, closing on 18 June 2026. 

The consultation is looking at strengthening standards, ensuring those who conduct fire risk assessments have the proper competencies and capabilities to do so. 

Fire engineers 

In March 2026, we announced that £15 million would be available to take forward our next steps on fire engineering profession reform. This includes consideration of support for: 

• the development of courses in fire engineering 

• providing bursaries 

• supporting research and academic capacity  

A successful regulatory system depends on a strong and sustainable pipeline of professionals. We expect that this funding will make a significant contribution to achieving that aim.

Building control 

In March 2026, the panel sent their report to the Building Safety Minister, Chief Construction Adviser and the Building Safety Regulator. 

Alongside this progress report, the government has published:

• the building control independent panel’s report
• the government’s response to the report

The report outlines support for principles and next steps alongside this update.

Fire and rescue services

College of fire and rescue 

Alongside this progress report, we have launched a consultation on the establishment of a new college of fire and rescue. 

The consultation sets out several potential areas where the college could offer tangible benefits for the fire and rescue sector and the public: these are leadership and command, recruitment and training, national standards, research and data, culture and integrity, health and wellbeing and assurance. These potential functions build on the Inquiry’s recommendations and include areas where we could go further to fully grasp the opportunities that the establishment of a college could offer. The consultation also invites feedback regarding the most appropriate delivery and funding models for the college. 

Response and recovery 

We have strengthened local resilience capability through updated standards, peer review and enhanced training and guidance. The Cabinet Office has begun refreshing the National Resilience Standards for Local Resilience Forums (LRFs), informed by early feedback and developed collaboratively with local responders, and will align these with updated National Occupational Standards and clearer expectations on training. 

A peer review model co-designed with LRFs has been developed and will be piloted until September 2026 before iteration. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has launched a pilot resilience training offer for local government, with the first training day taking place in March 2026. A full review is now underway, and plans are developing for an onward rolling programme from September 2026. MHCLG is also refreshing the 2018 Chief Executive Resilience Guidance later this year to clarify duties, embed relevant Grenfell recommendations, and disseminate best practice on financial support and the role of social workers, including consolidating resources on resilience.gov.uk by August 2026. 

Vulnerable people 

Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (Residential PEEPs) 

The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations came into force on 6 April 2026. This mandates Residential PEEPs in all high-rise and higher-risk residential buildings. The remaining element of the policy, mandating consideration of in-flat risks and mitigations, requires primary legislation, and government has committed to put this in place when Parliamentary time allows.  

We published statutory guidance to Responsible Persons to support their implementation of Residential PEEPs on 2 December 2025 to go alongside the Responsible Person’s Toolkit containing tried and tested schemes that are in line with the regulations. We also published an Easy Read document describing the Residential PEEPs process on April 6 2026 alongside the regulations coming into force.