Grenfell Tower Annual Report

Uma Kumaran Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

The hon. Gentleman is right to point to that concern, which we all share. In the most recent Budget, the Chancellor announced £600 million to fund skills training in the construction sector, so that we have the skills available not just to carry out work on the Grenfell site and remedial work on other sites affected by unsafe cladding, but to ensure that we can build homes to the higher safety standards now required right across the country.

[Uma Kumaran (Stratford and Bow) (Lab)]

The tragedy at Grenfell exposed the scale and devastating consequences of the building safety crisis in this country. We have heard today that survivors and families are still waiting for truth and justice. Sadly, that crisis is still unfolding: as we neared Christmas, over 350 households in the Stratford Halo in my constituency were forced to leave their homes because of serious structural safety concerns. They were told to leave immediately, and did not know when they could return—it was terrifying for them. What will the construction reform White Paper do to strengthen standards for safe and secure homes, so that residents like those in the Stratford Halo never again have to be evacuated from their homes because their buildings are too unsafe to live in, and to ensure that developers are held to account?

[Steve Reed]

I am aware of what happened in my hon. Friend’s constituency recently, and how worrying it has been not just for the people living there, but for people right across the country. Just as with what happened at Grenfell, it attests to the fact that the building safety regulations and system in this country were inadequate to meet the public’s expectation, which is rightly that their homes should be safe. We have today published the construction products reform White Paper, which I hope she will take the opportunity to look at. It outlines some of the changes that we will make to products themselves. We will also continue to work on other aspects of building. The independent panel on building control, chaired by Dame Judith Hackitt, is due to report shortly and will make further important proposals on how to improve the system.