Building Control Independent Panel outlines the challenges facing the industry

The Building Control Independent Panel – an advisory group of the UK government’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) – has now released its so-called ‘problem statement’.

The statement is the Panel’s starting position and sets out the intention to work with stakeholders and the building control profession to consider the questions raised by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

It will be issuing a call for evidence from the building control sector in England and those findings will feed into the Panel’s review to government, due later this year, with government provisionally aiming to respond to that review in early 2026.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry set out the problems in the building control system in England that they considered had built up due to conflicts of interest over a significant period.

The Inquiry found that “..many of those involved in major construction projects, including clients, contractors and even architects, regarded building control primarily as a source of advice and assistance’ and that ‘in many cases that was how building control saw its role”.

The panel’s initial response to the Inquiry findings states: “Commercial interests were too often put ahead of building safety. Collective failures to identify how combustible products were being used led to the proliferation of unsuitable cladding that was subsequently uncovered.

“Since 2017, significant reforms have been made to attempt to address these issues, notably with the introduction of the Building Safety Act 2022. This has led to the establishment of the Building Safety Regulator as the single building control body for higher risk buildings (HRBs) and responsibility for oversight of building control as a newly regulated profession.

“The challenge for the panel is to determine whether the issues identified by the Inquiry persist across the wider built environment and where. We will consider what is currently being done and what more could be done to improve the oversight of key building safety risks and hold bad actors to account.

“The panel notes the concern raised by the Inquiry about both Local Authority and Registered Building Control Approvers preferring to cooperate with applicants rather than to enforce the building regulations. We intend to examine how to maintain the right balance as we believe that both working together effectively are essential elements of an effective building control approach.”

The panel has agreed it will be helpful to broaden the work out into a review of options to ensure an effective regulatory landscape and a secure building control profession to deliver this and future government’s priorities.