The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigate the fire in East London including duties under the Building Safety Act.
An entire block of flats was affected by the fire in Dagenham, including scaffolding around the building and its roof as 225 firefighters tackled the blaze on 26 August.
Remediation work was in process to remove unsafe cladding from the residential block.
In a statement, the regulator said their primary considerations for the investigation will be how the cladding remediation works were organised and undertaken.
Along with whether the Principal Accountable Person had discharged their duties according to Part 4 of the Building Safety Act in relation to the spread of the fire.
According to one report, a fire door exit was ‘padlocked’ shut during the fire when residents tried to escape, along with no fire alarm sounding.
Residents of the high-rise block had also reportedly raised concerns about wooden decking and flammable cladding from 2018.
Designed to provide greater accountability and management of higher-risk buildings, the Building Safety Act 2022 mandated two new roles for managing building safety – Accountable Persons and Principal Accountable Persons.
According to the Act, the Principal Accountable Person is:
At a roundtable after the fire, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: “Seven years on from Grenfell, action has been far too slow and the fire in Dagenham is a horrific reminder of the risk unsafe cladding still poses to far too many people.
“This government will expect more from regulators and partners to make sure action is being taken now to make homes safe, speed up remediation and ensure that buildings in the process of being remediated are managed safely for residents.”
The investigation is ongoing as HSE work with local authorities.
