This year has seen the publication of the principal JCT 2024 contracts, with its other contracts to follow. It also saw the publication last month of the Grenfell Report Phase 2, which highlights one of construction’s worst disasters. Not that there is any direct link between these events – but there is a common issue, that of adherence to contractual provisions and relevant statutory frameworks.

The Phase 2 report identifies that there were “organisations bound together by a web of contracts and subject to legislation in the form of the Building Regulations”. It also states that there existed “an ingrained willingness to accommodate customers instead of insisting on high standards and adherence to a contract that was intended to maintain them”. The issue of parties not complying with contracts and with processes arises throughout large parts of the report.

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