Grenfell Tower

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

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has been suspended until further notice due to the coronavirus crisis. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s tightened restrictions on social distancing, and the advice for the over-70s to self-isolate until further notice, meant the continuation of the inquiry became impos

Katherine Metcalfe compares building safety regulations north and south of the border. The UK government announced last month that a new building safety regulator for England, under the auspices of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), will be formed as part of a package of measures to improve high

Trainee solicitor at Jones Whyte Law, Lauren Hazlie, provides information on high rise cladding and what people should be aware of when looking to buy or sell a property which has inappropriate cladding. Over the past couple of decades, a number of high rise buildings in the UK have been built with

New guidance has been published to reduce the risk from fire in specialised housing, such as sheltered and supported accommodation.

The American firm which manufactured the flammable cladding panels used on Grenfell Tower has spent $40 million on legal and advisory fees linked to the incident, it has emerged. In its fourth-quarter report released this week, Arconic revealed that it has forked out $2m on Grenfell advisory fe

Housing minister Kevin Stewart has called for urgent action to resolve an issue which has seen homeowners unable to sell or re-mortgage their homes following the publication of cladding advice from the UK Government.

The UK Government has launched a consultation into proposals to lower the 18-metre height tall building threshold as part of new measures to improve building safety standards. Providing an update on the building safety programme to the House of Commons yesterday, housing secretary Robert Jenrick tol

The long-awaited public inquiry report into the Grenfell Tower tragedy has concluded that the choice, combination and installation of cladding led to the fire spreading so quickly. Published today, the 1,000-page phase 1 report follows the first phase of the inquiry, which looked at what happened on

Potentially hundreds of flats in high rise blocks across Scotland may be effectively unsellable due to a lack of certification for cladding, it has been reported. New guidance issued by mortgage lenders revealed that properties over 18 metres high with any cladding must now provide written confirmat

Well-meaning legislation put in place following Grenfell is proving a real challenge for the property/construction industry in practice, writes chartered surveyor Eric Curran. The Grenfell Tower tragedy horrified Britain, and our legislators – quite rightly and commendably – have concent