Nearly a decade after the Grenfell Tower fire, building safety remains the UK construction market’s “biggest legal and commercial driver,” according to Alan Stone, partner and head of construction at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC), in a Law360 UK interview published October 16, 2026. The continuing effect is practical: post-Grenfell legislation, regulator oversight and complex responsibility disputes are keeping claims active, while most London Technology and Construction Court (TCC) cases still settle before judgment.
1. Why does building safety remain the dominant issue?
Stone’s central point is that building safety has moved from a specialist compliance concern to the organising issue for UK construction risk. The legislation introduced after Grenfell created continuing duties, documentation requirements and potential liabilities for the people and companies involved in designing, constructing, refurbishing, owning and managing buildings.
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Law360’s property-and-construction index describes a “continued stream” of disputes generated by that post-Grenfell legislation. The disputes are not limited to one defect or one contract. They can involve the physical condition of a building, the adequacy of design decisions, professional advice, insurance coverage, project delay and the allocation of remediation costs.
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2. What changed under the Building Safety Act?
The UK government says the Building Safety Act 2022 regulates work on higher-risk buildings, imposes duties on those involved in construction and refurbishment, and established the Building Safety Regulator. Those measures turn building safety into an institutional process with defined responsibilities rather than a matter left solely to private contract administration.
The framework is still developing. The government’s September 2026 progress report says the Building Safety Regulator became an arm’s-length body in January 2026. For project participants, that institutional change reinforces the need to identify the applicable duties, retain reliable evidence and understand how regulatory action may interact with contractual claims or insurance coverage.
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Practical consequences for project teams
- Owners and developers need a clear record of safety decisions, approvals, changes and handover information.
- Designers, contractors and specialist subcontractors must be able to demonstrate what they were responsible for and which information they relied on.
- Insurers and advisers may need to assess whether a problem is a defect, a professional-negligence issue, a policy event or a combination of these.
- Dispute planning should account for regulator involvement as well as private litigation, adjudication or arbitration.
3. What kinds of disputes are most likely to follow?
Stone’s construction practice covers construction disputes, professional negligence, insurance disputes, litigation, adjudication, arbitration, mediation and advisory work. Those categories reflect the way building-safety claims commonly spread across a project’s contractual and professional network.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches| Dispute or risk area | Typical responsibility question | Possible forum or process |
|---|---|---|
| Building defects and remediation | Who designed, specified, installed or accepted the defective work? | Negotiation, adjudication, arbitration or litigation |
| Professional negligence | Did an architect, engineer, surveyor or other adviser fall below the required standard? | Expert-led claim, mediation or court proceedings |
| Delay and disruption | Did safety changes, approvals or remedial work affect time and cost? | Contract claim, adjudication or TCC litigation |
| Insurance coverage | Does a policy respond, and which exclusions or allocation rules apply? | Coverage dispute, mediation or litigation |
| Regulatory duties | Were statutory building-safety obligations met by the relevant dutyholders? | Regulatory process alongside private claims |
Responsibility is often distributed among owners, designers, main contractors, subcontractors, consultants and insurers. A claim can therefore require technical evidence, contract interpretation and a reconstruction of project decisions made years earlier.
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4. Does the high volume of claims mean most cases reach trial?
No. RPC reported 450 new London TCC claims between October 2024 and September 2025. During that period, 102 trials were listed, but 85% of claims settled before judgment. The figures, published by RPC in 2026, show both a substantial dispute workload and a strong settlement tendency.
Settlement does not make a claim simple. Parties still need to value remediation, test expert evidence, identify viable defendants, preserve documents and assess limitation and insurance issues. Early mediation or without-prejudice negotiations may avoid trial cost, but a weak factual record can reduce leverage and make settlement harder.
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A sensible dispute-prevention sequence
- Define each party’s statutory, contractual and professional responsibility at the outset.
- Keep contemporaneous design, inspection, approval, change-control and handover records.
- Notify potential defects and insurance circumstances promptly, following the relevant contract and policy procedures.
- Obtain independent technical and legal advice before positions become fixed.
- Choose adjudication, mediation, arbitration or court proceedings according to urgency, evidence, confidentiality and enforceability.
5. What role is AI beginning to play?
RPC identifies AI as an emerging trend both in the subject matter of construction claims and in case management. Law360’s index says Stone discussed AI’s implications for the sector, but the indexed material does not publish the complete five-question exchange or a detailed AI policy.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11On projects, AI may affect how records are created, searched, summarised or used to support design and compliance decisions. In disputes, those records can become evidence. The key risks are provenance, accuracy, version control, confidentiality, data protection and the inability to explain how an output influenced a decision.
Governance checks for AI-assisted work
- Record which system produced an output, when it was generated and what source material it used.
- Require a qualified person to verify safety, design, contractual and legal conclusions.
- Preserve original documents and metadata rather than relying only on an AI-generated summary.
- Set rules for confidential project information and personal data before uploading material to a tool.
- Ensure contracts state who is accountable when an AI-assisted recommendation is wrong.
AI can reduce administrative effort, but it does not transfer statutory or contractual responsibility away from the project’s dutyholders.
What Stone’s message means for UK construction businesses
Building safety is now a continuing governance and dispute issue, not a one-off response to Grenfell. The Building Safety Act 2022 and the Building Safety Regulator have embedded oversight; the TCC figures show that disputes remain numerous even though most settle; and AI adds a new layer of evidentiary and accountability questions. Businesses that map responsibility early and preserve trustworthy records are better placed to comply, negotiate and defend claims.
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