Grenfell White Paper: Construction Products Reform 2026

The white paper sets out a package of system wide reforms to address the regulatory gaps and critical issues in the construction products sector, which has been largely unreformed since the Grenfell tragedy. The white paper outlines clear policies and next steps for long term reform.

These include:

Progressing additional measures to strengthen the regulatory regime, including the introduction of a general safety requirement and reforms to maintain consistency with the reformed EU regime for products regulated against standards, where this meets our objectives.
A step change in product information, testing standards, certification oversight, and digitisation to ensure specifiers, installers and users can base product decisions on reliable information.
Stronger powers, clearer responsibilities and a more coherent regulatory framework to support the work of the national regulator for construction products, as the single construction regulator is set up.

General safety requirement consultation

The white paper also sets out a path towards the introduction of a general safety requirement, which will bring currently unregulated products into the construction products regulatory regime. This requirement will place a proportionate, risk-based duty on manufacturers and other businesses in the supply chain to ensure that only safe products are placed on the UK market. A consultation on the general safety requirement has been published alongside the white paper. Both the white paper and general safety requirement consultations will run until 20 May 2026, and views are invited from all those with an interest and stake in the future of the construction products regulatory regime. The consultations provide an opportunity for you to help shape how the regime develops. Please share information about the white paper and the general safety requirement consultation across your networks. Opportunities to discuss the reforms will also be available during the consultation period.

This consultation will last for 12 weeks from 25 February 2026 until 20 May 2026.

We strongly encourage responses via the online platform, particularly from organisations with access to online facilities such as local authorities, representative bodies and businesses. We expect a high-level of interest across many sectors. Using the online survey will assist our analysis of the responses, enabling more efficient and effective consideration of the issues raised.

Explicit Note – Please ensure your responses are submitted by the 20^th May deadline.