‘Our focus is on making sure residents are safe’: regulating high-rise buildings after the Grenfell tragedy

Around 12,500 higher-risk buildings will be assessed for safety by BSR over the next five years. Photograph: Drazen_/Getty Images

The Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 sent shockwaves across the UK. After fire broke out in the 24-storey block in London’s north Kensington, 72 people died – the largest loss of life caused by a residential fire since the second world war.

The rapid spread of the fire was largely attributed, by the first report of the Grenfell Tower inquiry (pdf), to the use of aluminium composite material (ACM) panels in the tower’s cladding. As a result, seismic changes have been made in the way buildings are built and maintained in the UK.