The Construction Products Reform White Paper – What Contractors Need to Know
April 2026The Construction Products Reform White Paper was published on 25 February 2026 (the ‘White Paper’). It seeks views on a package of proposals for the reform of the construction products regime. This sits alongside the government consultation of the General Safety Requirement for Construction Products, which was published on the same date. The consultation will last until 20 May 2026.
In this article, we provide an overview of the White Paper, including the background to it, and the key elements and potential changes it may introduce.
Background
In February 2025, alongside the government response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report, the government published and consulted on the Construction Products Reform Green Paper, which set out proposals for institutional and regulatory reform of the construction products regime (the ‘Green Paper’). The White Paper responds to the Green Paper and is described as ‘the next decisive step in our response to the urgent need for reform across our construction products regime’. As part of a move from a framework focused on removing trade barriers to one which is focused on safety, accountability, and public confidence, the White Paper ‘confirms an ambitious programme of reforms that are essential for public safety’.
The White Paper describes this as ‘not just regulatory change; it is a transformational culture shift’ – it sits alongside the vision for a Single Construction Regulator, which will take on the role as the national regulator for construction products, as well as the regulatory responsibility of the Building Safety Regulator. The government seeks to take ‘decisive steps towards ensuring that a tragedy such as Grenfell never happens again’ – part of this involves eliminating unsafe products, enhancing scrutiny, and improving transparency across the sector, with the further aim of reducing / eliminating remediation costs for developers.
Whilst some progress has been made since Grenfell, for example in relation to the bans of specific products, e.g. combustible materials were banned in high-rise residential buildings in 2018 and this ban extended to high-rise hotels and hostels in 2022, the White Paper acknowledges that insufficient progress has been made to address critical gaps in the regime. The White Paper therefore builds on the findings of both the Hackitt Review and the Morrell-Day Review, both of which identified systemic issues across the construction products regime.
The Issues
The White Paper identifies a number of ‘[s]ystem-wide issues that must be addressed’, which were corroborated by responses to the Green Paper. These include but are not limited to: (i) the fact that ‘[s]afety is not the central focus’, with the current UK’s construction products regulations having been designed to support trade and not safety; (ii) the fragmented regulatory landscape, which ignores how products ‘interact as part of a system in buildings’ and poor integration between product and building regulations; (iii) weak institutional oversight and insufficient enforcement, which ‘has fostered a culture of impunity, undermining trust and fair competition’; and (iv) a general lack of competence across the supply chain, ‘coupled with a pervasive culture of indifference to safety’.
The White Paper also notes that only one-third of construction products on the UK market are regulated under the Construction Products Regulations; this means that a significant number of products are currently unregulated. Together with inadequate and / or insufficient rules on the information required and the presence of misleading marketing claims by manufacturers, this means ‘that there can be a lack of clear and accurate information on the performance of products […] [making] it difficult for specifiers and contractors to make informed decisions on products and their safe use’.
The reforms set out in the White Paper therefore include: (i) requiring enhanced product information and transparency, with all construction products having ‘clear, accessible labelling and product information that outlines critical safety information’; (ii) strengthening testing and certification, with all UK Conformity Assessment Bodies to be licensed by the national regulator; and (ii) stronger enforcement mechanisms, with the aim of improving accountability and competence.
Compliance with the New Construction Products Regime
The White Paper identifies ‘the construction industry and supply chain’, which incudes clients, designers, developers, and contractors, as one of five key groups that are critical to reform (with the others being manufacturers, testing and certification bodies, regulators, and the government itself). The construction sector ‘must raise standards, ensure appropriate product use, and drive competence and innovation. Reforms mean that accountability will extend across the value chain, with consequences for non-compliance’.
The General Safety Requirement
The White Paper makes it clear that all construction products will fall within the regulatory regime – either via: (i) designated standards or technical assessment, which will require manufacturers to provide the necessary information to demonstrate compliance; or (ii) the new General Safety Requirement (the ‘GSR’), under which ‘economic operators’, i.e. manufacturers, importers, and distributors, will be under clear legal duties to place only safe products on the market.
Insofar as manufacturers are concerned, this means, for construction products which have not been subjected to a technical assessment, assessing safety risks connected to the intended use and / or the normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use of a product and taking proportionate action to eliminate or control such risks before placing such products on the market.
Greater Accountability
One of the aims of the White Paper is to ensure greater accountability across the entire chain. Once a construction product is on the market, building professionals, designers, and contractors will be accountable for selecting and safety installing the right product for the intended use. The Building Act 1984 and The Building Regulations 2010 provide that those fulfilling such roles are competent to do the work in compliance with Building Regulations. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and other health and safety legislation ensures that work on site is conducted in an appropriate and safe way.
For contractors, this means that, alongside ensuring that building work is carried out in a workmanlike manner, steps must be taken to confirm that products specified and installed are appropriate and have compliant safety information and performance data – procurement processes must therefore be updated to check the compliance of all products, including previously unregulated ones, and records of clear decision-making should be kept to demonstrate how products were selected and verified. Contractors should also ensure ‘that what is specified and installed is suitable and safe for the intended use’ and that they and / or their subcontractors are competent to install the relevant products.
Enhanced Measures
However, the White Paper also proposes enhanced measures in respect of products ‘where there is a risk of serious harm if something goes wrong’, i.e. where products are used in scenarios that are critical to safety and / or where the failure of a product or system presents a risk to life, e.g. fire doors. For such products, the White Paper proposes obligations that go beyond the mandatory rules for placing a product on the market, although the White Paper stresses that these proportionate obligations will be outcome-based and focus on principal designers and / or principal contractors.
Principal designers, who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that what is specified and installed is suitable and safe for the intended use, would therefore be expected to consider the end use of a product and to take actions commensurate to that risk.
Likewise, principal contractors, who are responsible for ensuring that installation is carried out correctly and appropriately, would be expected to demonstrate how potential risks have been assessed and the steps taken to mitigate the same – in some instances, this might include using installers who meet certain competency requirements.
Alongside this, the national regulator for construction products will be given duties to ‘determine products or systems that are critical to safe construction’ and to set requirements and issue guidance to support principal designers and principal contractors. The White Paper recognises that principal contractors, as well as principal designers, are already subject to a range of obligations that aim to ensure safety – the government will therefore undertake further engagement with stakeholders ‘to ensure a proportionate approach that avoids duplication or overlap with other obligations, and truly adds value’.
Liability
The use of non-compliant products will expose contractors to liability – for example, under s148(a) of the Building Safety Act 2022, claims may be pursued against a person who ‘fails to comply with a construction product requirement in relation to a construction product’ where it renders the relevant building unfit for habitation.
The White Paper further confirms that enforcement authorities will be equipped with investigation and intervention powers to manage non-compliances, which ‘will be underpinned by robust criminal offences for both companies and individuals that do not comply’, which could lead to unlimited fines or imprisonment and possible director disqualification. Contractors should therefore have regard to accredited test data rather than manufacturers’ marketing claims and expect increased scrutiny during the gateway stages.
Also of interest to contractors will be the routes to civil redress against product manufacturers where buildings require remediation as a result of unsafe or otherwise problematic construction products. Sections 147-151 of the BSA 2022 set out a statutory framework for construction product liability – these provisions were designed to enable legal redress against manufacturers and suppliers of unsafe or mis-sold construction products, in particular where there is no direct contractual relationship between those parties. However, the White Paper acknowledges that concerns have been raised about the practical challenges of these provisions, including but not limited to ‘complex legal thresholds and evidentiary burdens’ and ‘limited availability of legacy documentation’.
The White Paper reiterates that ‘[i]t is important that the construction industry is able to recover funding from supply chains as appropriate, including manufacturers’ – the government will therefore explore ‘ways to improve routes to redress so that those affected by past instances of mis-sold or unsafe cladding products, including developers and contractors who have paid to remediate buildings, have clearer and more effective options to seek contributions from manufacturers’, with the aim of reducing unnecessary barriers to claims.
This could include revisions to Part 5 of the BSA 2022. The White Paper makes it clear that ‘[t]he government is committed to reviewing and, where appropriate, improving legal routes for redress for those affected by faulty products’. This includes ‘streamlin[ing] the process to hold manufacturers accountable where defective cladding products have made buildings unfit for habitation historically’.
Conclusion
The White Paper forms part of a package of reforms intended to improve standards and increase accountability across the construction sector. Whilst we are still at the consultation stage, we expect most, if not all, of the government’s recommendations to come into force, which will impose significant statutory duties on designers and contractors. However, the overarching message from the White Paper is that this is a burden that will be shared across the entire chain – manufacturers, suppliers, and installers will be under duties to ensure that construction products are safe and used appropriately. The government’s increased focus on safety and transparency is also reflected in the alignment of UK construction product regulations with the EU Construction Products Regulation 2024 (2024/3110), which we reported on here.
Nevertheless, the White Paper ‘recognise[s] the complexity of the construction products sector’ – the government is therefore keen to work collaboratively with the construction sector and has requested input from a wide range of stakeholders to deliver ‘lasting change and a safer built environment for all, preventing future building safety tragedies and unlocking long term growth’.
As mentioned above, the consultation is open until 20 May 2026 – responses to the consultation are to be provided through the government’s online survey platform, which can be found here. Beale & Co are well-versed in matters relating to building safety; if you require any assistance, whether in relation to the consultation or building safety matters more generally, please do get in touch.
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