Sadiq Khan calls for renationalisation of building safety watchdog to avoid another Grenfell Tower-like fire tragedy

London’s mayor Sadiq Khan has called for the renationalisation of the Building Research Establishment (BRE) to restore public confidence.

He said it was necessary to take the building safety watchdog back into the public hands to drive up industry standards and prevent another Grenfell Tower-like fire tragedy.

In the UK’s deadliest residential fire disaster since World War II, the west London tower burned for 60 hours in June 2017, leaving 72 people dead. Sparked by an electrical fault in a refrigerator on the fourth floor of the block of flats, the fire spread rapidly due to combustible aluminium composite cladding.

Having been privatised in 1997, the BRE operates like a commercial firm. But the Grenfell Inquiry heard that “serious concerns” were raised about its approach in the run-up to the disaster.

Arguing it was wrong for the system to be driven by profit, London's deputy mayor for housing, Tom Copley, said immediate steps should be taken to rectify the failures of the current testing and certification regime.

According to him, the current system has been driven by profit motives rather than public safety “for too long”.

“That is why the mayor and I are today urging the government to make it a priority to nationalise the British Research Establishment and other testing and accreditation bodies to drive up industry standards and restore public confidence,” he told the Independent.

“We owe it to the 72 people who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower fire and their loved ones to ensure that a tragedy of this magnitude never happens again,” he said.

Khan and Copley’s views are similar to what the Fire Brigades Union has been saying - private ownership of the testing regime is “a complete disaster”.

The BRE said it welcomed the public scrutiny of the events that led to the Grenfell fire as the inquiry “rightly aims to ensure that those events can never be repeated”.

“As a core participant in the inquiry, which examines the materials and circumstances around the refurbishment of the Tower, we continue to assist however we can”, the firm told the Independent.

A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said a panel reviewing the construction products testing regime was due to submit its report “shortly.”