Construction and Planning Update – February 2025 top five

Here are our top five for February:

1. Building safety – Grenfell enquiry

On 26 February the government published its response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report. The full response is here.

The response refers to the action and reforms made since 2017 to tackle the safety failures identified from the investigation into the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.

It is true that there has been a significant response in terms legislation and regulation. It is fair to point out that prosecutions are yet to come, and that physical remediation is taking longer than expected (the government introduced a Remediation Acceleration Plan at the back end of last year).

2. Utilities, public sector and their suppliers take note!

24 February 2025 saw the Procurement Act 2023 come into force. Register on https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/# to access contract opportunities.

Actions recommended by the government for suppliers are here: The Procurement Act 2023: A short guide for suppliers (HTML) – GOV.UK. and advice is available from our construction team.

A procurement review unit (PRU) has been created to oversee the revised procurement regime. Its scope includes investigations into suppliers to determine whether they should be added to the public debarment list. Currently (14/03/25) there is no supplier on the debarment list. We understand that the seven companies named in the Grenfell Report are to be investigated under the terms of the new Procurement Act.

3. The Construction Products Reform Green Paper

Published on 26 February 2025 as “a consultation on proposals for institutional and regulatory reform of the construction products regime”.​ The consultation states that the green paper lays foundations for a regulatory framework that will meet the UK’s needs and that the green paper makes clear that achieving these necessary changes will require significant, long-term effort from both government and industry to deliver confidence in a system that guarantees safe products, safely used:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/construction-products-reform-green-paper

4. Deputy Prime Minister’s speech at Convention of the North

Like a final bugle call for February, The Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP, Deputy Prime Minister gave a speech to the Convention of the North in Preston on 28/02/2025. Full text can be found here Deputy Prime Minister speech at Convention of the North – GOV.UK

Keynote from the speech, there is to be an irreversible devolution of decision making from Whitehall to the North and local Mayor administrations. Newcastle and Manchester lead but will soon be followed by Liverpool, the North East, and South and West Yorkshire.

The English Devolution White Paper is to set this all out with a goal of “Nothing less than a total rewiring of power in England.  For all the techy talk of devolution, the goal is simple:  We will give mayors the power to drive growth, to use new levers over planning, housing and regeneration to Get Britain Building.” This means over a billion pounds (£) in flexible funding. 

The Deputy PM finished with this:

“I know that the change this country needs can’t be micromanaged from Whitehall. It’s people in this room today – mayors, councillors, business owners and investors – who will drive us forward.  And as that happens, I can promise that the full force of the government will be behind you. 
Transferring power out of Westminster, getting Britain building, letting our towns and cities fire on all cylinders, doing whatever it takes to kickstart economic growth and leaving no one behind in that government-defining mission.”

Lofty goals indeed.

5. Women in Construction Week

Next month Women in Construction Week celebrates the role of women in the construction industry. The National Association of Women in Construction held the first Women in Construction Week in 1998 – https://wicweek.org/ – and those of similar vintage to our head of construction may remember this as the year of the landmark Egan report “Rethinking Construction”.

Davies and Partners Solicitors construction team has been led by Jan Grimshaw for ten years. Jan comments that a will to see people succeed is the most important quality for a good mentor. As a department we encourage trainees to do 6 months in construction, as trainees rarely have any attrition with construction law at university. Our current trainee is Emma Kelly, who joined us at the end of February and has already delivered a presentation on JCT and NEC contracts. Construction remains a great specialism, regardless of gender.