Policy paper

Progress report: summary update

Published 29 May 2025

Overview

Last updated: May 29 2025

Theme	Number of recommendations	In progress	Complete
The construction industry	28	28	0
Fire and rescue services	13	13	0
Response and recovery	14	14	0
Vulnerable people	3	2	1
Total	58	57	1

Introduction 

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

The government accepted all of the Inquiry’s findings and will take action on all 58 recommendations to build a more robust and trusted regulatory system to deliver safe, quality homes for everyone.  

We will publish progress reports quarterly until all recommendations have been implemented.   

The overall timeline for implementation and delivery will be included in the September progress update. We expect that it will take at least four years for all recommendations to be completed, mainly because of the need for primary legislation which is subject to Parliamentary time. We are working as quickly as possible to deliver all 58 recommendations, while also ensuring that the action taken is the most effective.  

Some of the recommendations will be completed within months, such as the Machinery of Government (3), which requires administrative change, and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (31, 32 and 33), which were already being addressed before the Phase 2 report was published.  

Other recommendations require reviews, consultation and legislative change, which will take longer. Consultations for recommendations such as the creation of the single construction regulator (1) and the college of fire and rescue (29 and 30), 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, we will need to bid for Parliamentary time. Wherever possible we will explore quicker ways to implement recommendations.  

Tracking Grenfell Inquiry recommendations  

We will be transparent in the way we report on progress against the delivery of the 58 recommendations made by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.  

Ministers will review the work that is being undertaken to complete the recommendations each quarter. This is to ensure that government does not lose sight of the work to be done. They will scrutinise the pace of work, resolve any issues that are blocking delivery and approve the quarterly progress reports. 

The progress reports will be published quarterly (February, May, September and December) until all recommendations have been implemented.  

The reports will include updates on the three Phase 1 recommendations related to Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) for vulnerable people from high-rise buildings until they have been implemented.  

The reports will follow the same structure every quarter. There will be a summary page and then updates on each Phase 2 recommendation and Phase 1 recommendations related to PEEPs grouped by theme.  

The summary page will give an overview of the status of the recommendations in a table grouped by theme. It will summarise the work that has been done to deliver recommendations and how this links to the government’s long-term vision for continuing to rebuild people’s trust in our building and fire safety systems and delivering better outcomes for residents across the country. The summary page will be translated into the 11 languages most used within the Grenfell community ^{[footnote 1]}.

The recommendations are grouped thematically using the same themes used by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry: the construction industry; fire and rescue services; response and recovery; and vulnerable people. Phase 1 recommendations related to PEEPs will be grouped in the vulnerable people theme.  

Each recommendation will be given a status (in progress or completed) and will show the organisation responsible for delivering it. Under each recommendation, we will include information on what the government committed to do, what completion means and an update on progress this quarter. 

Where recommendations are aimed at local authorities, we will report against the work we are doing in support of these recommendations. We will not be reporting on the progress made by individual local authorities to implement these recommendations.   

Update on wider reforms 

Social housing reforms 

Residents must be at the heart of the systems that design, construct and maintain buildings. They must always be treated with dignity and respect, have access to redress when things go wrong and have their views properly heard.  

We are continuing to make progress on the social housing reforms we outlined in the full government response.  

We have extended the Social Housing Resident Panel so that social housing tenants’ voices continue to help shape national policy development. In March, we discussed with Panel members what they think the government priorities for social housing should be, to inform development of the Long-Term Housing Strategy. Baroness Taylor, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing and Local Government, met the full Panel in May to talk about the impact of the new consumer regulation regime after its first year of operation, and answered members’ questions on a wide range of issues.  

We have extended the Four Million Homes programme that provides information and training to tenants on their rights and how to engage with their landlords.  

We have concluded a call for evidence on the governance of delegated management organisations. We are analysing the responses and will set out next steps in due course.   

Transparency and oversight  

The government recognises that public inquiry recommendation implementation monitoring is currently insufficient.  

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommended that it be made a legal requirement for the government to maintain a publicly accessible record of recommendations made by select committees, coroners and public inquiries.  

We accepted this recommendation in principle and we will establish a record on GOV.UK of all recommendations made by public inquiries since 2024, by the summer of 2025. This will be periodically updated and expanded to capture future inquiry recommendations. This will be an enduring mechanism for monitoring and tracking government implementation of inquiry recommendations. It will allow the public to track the progress of implementation and ensure that inquiry recommendations do not get lost.  

The government has committed to improving the transparency and accessibility of inquiry recommendations and coronial Prevention of Future Deaths reports received by government, and the action taken in response to them.  

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommended that scrutiny of the government implementation of recommendations should be a matter for Parliament. This is in line with recommendations made by the Infected Blood Inquiry and the House of Lords Statutory Inquiry Committee. Parliament is responsible for its own scrutiny arrangements; the government will continue to work with Parliament to support scrutiny. 

The government is exploring ways to improve transparency and accountability on recommendations made to it from inquiries and as part of wider inquiries reform. This is a substantial piece of work, led by the Cabinet Office, that will aim to improve how we identify wrongs, and get to the truth more quickly. This work is still in its early stages, but we will continue to update on this important policy work.    

Summary update on recommendations 

This section gives a summary update of the work that has been done to deliver recommendations since the full government response (26 February 2025). 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 

The construction industry 

Chief Construction Adviser  

We will appoint a Chief Construction Adviser (CCA) as soon as possible: we intend to engage an interim CCA promptly, in advance of a permanent appointment next year. We have started outreach with potential candidates for the role of interim CCA and plan to announce a successful candidate by this summer. Alongside this, we are working to finalise the scope and appointment process for the permanent CCA role. 

The Chief Construction Adviser will provide independent advice to ministers, working with government and industry to rebuild trust in the built environment.  They 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 (MHCLG). As announced by the Prime Minister, the Home Office will retain management of the Airwave Service Contract on behalf of MHCLG and will remain responsible for the Emergency Service Mobile Communications Programme and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). This decision took effect through a formal machinery of government change on 1 April 2025, with fire functions and building safety now reporting to one Secretary of State.  

This will provide a more coherent approach to keeping people safe from fire in their homes.  

Alex Norris is now the minister responsible for fire and building safety policy and work is underway to support a smooth and positive transition of all functions between departments.  

At present, officials working on fire safety remain in the Home Office, but reporting to the Deputy Prime Minister. We expect work on the transfer to be completed in 2025. 

Gas valves 

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has gathered evidence from the gas network operators on challenges to accessing pipeline isolation valves and on current inspection approaches, noting changes since the Grenfell fire.    

Initial options have been developed to address the issues highlighted by the recommendation, and work is in progress to develop these further.  

A key focus of the options is the interrelationships between gas network operators, building owners and landowners and the need to build awareness of the importance of pipeline isolation valves to ensure they can be accessed when required.  

Fire and rescue services 

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) developed an action and delivery plan in April, which will be shared more widely with key stakeholders by the end of May. To inform this plan, NFCC have surveyed fire and rescue services (FRS) to establish a baseline position for FRS regarding the recommendations. NFCC are 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 disruption the country could face. The Cabinet Office is working with organisations nationally and locally to review what is 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.  

Progress to date includes the launch of the UK Resilience Academy in April 2025 to improve the consistency, quality and availability of resilience training. The Academy will build resilience skills across society, training over 4000 people a year in resilience and emergency roles. For the first time, this is based on independently reviewed, published National Occupational Standards which set clear expectations of the knowledge and skills people require in their resilience role.   

The government is identifying and supporting people who may be disproportionately impacted in an emergency.  The National Situation Centre and the Office for National Statistics have created a Risk Vulnerability Tool to identify areas with a high number of people that may need more support in a crisis situation. This is now available to UK and devolved government ministers and officials. The tool gives near real-time information on risks, such as weather warnings and power outages, and key demographic data for groups that may be more negatively impacted to the specific risk. The Cabinet Office has also published revised guidance to support local responders to identify and support individuals and groups who may be vulnerable in an emergency.  

This guidance is part of the government’s wider efforts to modernise critical national guidance. The government has also recently published the ‘Amber Book - Managing crises in central government’ (Amber Book), which updates the Central Government Concept of Operations for Emergency Response and Recovery. The Amber Book includes a new section on human aspects, explicitly recognising the need for humanitarian considerations in crisis response. 

Vulnerable people 

Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) 

Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) 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 information in case they need to support their evacuation  

• mandate building-level evacuation plans for these buildings   

The government will lay Residential PEEPs 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, expected at the end of June 2025, subject to the Parliamentary timetable.  

The government has committed funding for 2025/26 to begin this important work by supporting social housing providers to deliver Residential PEEPs for their renters. Future years’ funding will be confirmed at the upcoming Spending Review.  

Guidance will be produced following the laying of the regulations, following input from stakeholders on the draft, including disability groups.  

The government is also developing a toolkit to support Responsible Persons in their implementation of Residential PEEPs.

1. The 11 languages are: Amharic, Arabic, Farsi (Persian), Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Somali, Tagalog (Filipino), Tigrinya, Urdu and Vietnamese. ↩