Why building safety cannot be left entirely to the free market: A history of building regulations (part III)
By Eleanor Jolliffe2026-09-30T07:00:00
Eleanor Jolliffe considers attempts to reduce and simplify the regulations and how the Grenfell Tower tragedy changed everything
Last month I continued my short synopsis of the history of building regulations, examining how the impact of two world wars led to levels of experimentation and a shift towards standards of performance, and away from mandated details. The freedom to experiment with new construction technologies grew and the rebuilding following the wars offered plenty of scope for experimentation in both form and detail.
The years that were to follow would see another significant shift as power moved, as it was in the rest of the economy, into the private sector.