Grenfell Tower

Following the tragedy at Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017, the Grenfell Inquiry’s Final Report (also called the Phase 2 Report), was published in September. It paints a bleak picture of years of failures by government and others in the construction industry and calls for far-reaching reform

England's former housing secretary Michael Gove has said criminal prosecutions should be brought against Grenfell Tower cladding firms. The final report of the Grenfell Inquiry, published last week, said the west London tower block was covered in combustible products because of the “syste

Scotland’s largest trade association SELECT has echoed the Grenfell Inquiry’s call for regulation and a shake-up of the construction industry and has urged the Scottish Government to “step up and act on regulation” before tragedy strikes again. The campaigning body says it ag

A chain of failures across government, organisations and the private sector led through "incompetence", "dishonesty" and "greed” all contributed to Grenfell Tower becoming a death trap and resulted in an "unedifying 'merry-go-round of buck-passing'", the final report from the Grenfell Tower In

A block of flats in Aberdeen is the first in Scotland to have dangerous cladding removed and replaced as part of a government pilot scheme set up following the Grenfell tragedy.

Foster Evans looks at the Scottish housing review post-Grenfell, and what Scotland can learn from the tragedy. On 16 June 2017, 72 people died in the Grenfell Tower fire. The primary cause was the spread of fire caused by external cladding, which was only installed to stop the building being an &lsq

A professor of fire and structures at the University of Edinburgh has published a new report which details the flaws with the government’s former safety research and testing body that ultimately led to the death of 72 people following the Grenfell Tower fire five years ago today

As developers south of the border commit millions of pounds to address life-critical fire-safety issues on buildings higher than 11 metres, the Scottish Government looks set to ban the use of combustible materials on all new residential and ‘high-risk’ buildings above the same height.

A groundbreaking film that explores the construction industry’s response to the Grenfell Tower disaster has been produced by a cladding firm with strong roots in Scotland. Made to encourage more open debate within the industry, the 20-minute documentary features Cumbernauld-based MSP Facades,

Bereaved families and survivors of the Grenfell fire say the timing of when the tower is demolished needs to be decided by them and not the government. The Sunday Times said ministers are set to announce the demolition of the tower amid safety concerns, adding structural engineers have "unambiguousl

Four years after the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower, BLM partner Shirley Wyles lays out the legal landscape regarding fire and smoke alarms in Scottish homes. While the catastrophic blaze that ripped through Grenfell Tower in the early hours of 14 June 2017 with the loss of 72 lives is the subje

Andrew Tolmie and Stefanie Johnston outline the current legal landscape in Scotland regarding who pays the remedial works necessary to bring residential buildings into line with new fire safety standards. On 14th June 2017, a fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block in west London, causi

Rosie Gollan, an Edinburgh-based solicitor at law firm Womble Bond Dickinson, looks at the Building Safety Bill and its implications in Scotland. Following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the UK Government has been reviewing and taking steps to reform our building and fire safety regimes. 

The UK Government's plans to ensure trade can be carried on unhindered in each of the four home nations once the UK severs its ties to the EU will weaken Scottish building standards designed to prevent Grenfell-like disasters, a leading architect has warned. Peter Drummond, a senior member of the Ro

The UK Government should relax its ban on combustible cladding imposed after the Grenfell Tower fire, according to a housebuilder. Berkeley Group has argued that tall buildings that feature the same type of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding involved in the disaster, which led to the deaths