Members of the NHMF Committee would like to extend their sympathy to the families and friends of those who lost their lives, as well as to those who have been affected by the terrible tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire.

There are many factors which contribute to the challenge of maintaining safe, secure and warm affordable homes in existing tower blocks. Residents, neighbours, the emergency services, fire protection experts, property services teams, development teams, finance teams and housing management need to work together to inform decision boards, so that they can ensure that residents are safe and comfortable in their homes. This must be supported by constant vigilance on site, and ongoing dialogue between all parties.

It is a shock to the industry that this could happen in the UK. Everyone involved in work relating to residential housing will be eager to learn the lessons from this incident so that together we can ensure that it never happens again.