The Government has finally committed to delivering on long-delayed promises to improve building safety after the Grenfell fire.
Ministers have been under pressure to force building owners and managers to share information with local fire services as suggested by the first phase of the Inquiry.
They have also been urged to demand those who are responsible for buildings to undertake regular inspections and share evacuation plans with residents.
Tory minister Stephen Greenhalgh announced the U-turn on the fire safety plans in the House of Lords.
The peer confirmed ministers will bring in the changes before the second anniversary of the of the Inquiry’s report in October.
The devastating inferno at Grenfell Tower in West London killed 72 people in June 2017 after the fire spread quickly up the cladding on the outside of the building.
The inquiry found that the building’s exterior did not comply with regulations and that the fire service were too late in advising residents to evacuate.
When it made its recommendations in October 2019, then housing secretary James Brokenshire promised to implement them “in full” and “without delay”.
But after the Tories brought in the Fire Safety Bill - which the Government said would be “a step further” towards delivering the changes - Tory MPs voted against them.
They were later overturned in the House of Lords - but again rejected by the Government.
Labour ’s housing spokesperson in the Lords, Roy Kennedy, who tabled the successful amendment, told The Mirror: “I am delighted that the Government is finally looking to act on the phase one Grenfell Tower Inquiry Report.
"The victims and survivors of that terrible fire have waited far too long but this is welcome progress, and we now have a timetable that will hopefully see the report’s recommendations put in place.”
Under the changes, building owners will be forced to inform local fire services about materials used on their exterior walls, as well as up-to-date floor plans and where their fire-fighting equipment is located.
They will have to conduct regular checks of flat entrance doors and communal fire doors, all lifts and any equipment.
Building owners will also have to get expert fire risk assessments, under changes to the Building Safety Bill.
And they will be made to draw up, and regularly review, evacuation plans, plus install fire escape signs in all residential buildings of 11m and over.
Lord Greenhalgh said: "The Government’s commitment to implementing the Inquiry’s recommendations remains undimmed, as does our commitment to ensure those most affected by the tragic events at Grenfell Tower – the bereaved and survivors – continue to have a voice in their implementation."
