The UK construction industry has been “sleep-walking towards serious problems” and must now take a long and careful look at itself, the Grenfell Inquiry has been told.

Paul Hyett, a former RIBA president and principal of architect HKS, made the plea for reform yesterday, in the final moments of the inquiry’s first module which began in January.

The industry, and architecture, must “take the serious steps necessary to put our house in order”, he said.

He pointed to a number of issues including the reduced emphasis on technical competence in architectural education and industry’s failure to learn from a litany of serious fires in the last 40 years.

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