On 28 March 2023, Keating Chambers hosted a lecture in commemoration of Donald Keating QC.  Lord Justice Coulson spoke on “From Ronan Point to Grenfell: The Decline and Fall of Building Safety”.

In this insightful lecture, Lord Justice Coulson examined the evolution of the building safety regulatory framework in England.  He referenced each change in approach with a reminder of the significant risk to life that arises in cases where the regulatory regime is not sufficiently robust.  Lord Justice Coulson’s view was that “radical change is required” particularly given the untested nature of the recent changes to the current regime.

Helpfully, Lord Justice Coulson advised that he had prepared a paper on the history of building safety in England and that this is to be published soon. We look forward to reading Lord Justice Coulson’s further thoughts and analysis on this important topic and to continue the dialogue on improvements to building safety in England.

This article was written by Richard Adams, Claire Logue and Kayla Urbanski.