Someone else was responsible. That’s what contractors assumed at Grenfell.
The inquiry exposed faulty cladding.
It revealed something worse: a competence crisis. A shortage of fire engineers who actually understand what they’re building. A culture where technical accountability gets passed around until tragedy forces the question: who was supposed to know?
The government accepted the recommendation to encourage fire engineering courses for construction professionals. LABC built a program: eleven half-day workshops covering design principles, smoke ventilation, structural fire engineering, and relevant standards.
It targets tier one and principal contractors.
LABC trained over 5,000 delegates in 2024. They built this curriculum with the University of Edinburgh, the National Fire Chiefs Council, and multiple fire engineering consultancies.
But training solves the knowledge gap, not the accountability gap.
Grenfell inquiry panel member Thouria Istephan said it clearly: “If you work in the construction industry and you do not feel the weight of responsibility you have for keeping people safe, you are in the wrong job.”
That’s the cultural shift training can’t manufacture. Fire engineering principles fit in a curriculum. Caring whether people burn doesn’t.
The course launched in September 2025 with sessions continuing through 2026.
The competence crisis runs deeper than any curriculum. Training builds technical capacity. Accountability requires recognizing you’re the one responsible.
Whether the program works depends on whether the industry wants to change or check a compliance box.
The real test? Whether contractors who assumed someone else was responsible at Grenfell will recognize themselves in this training.