BRE provides research, advice, training, testing, certification and standards for both public and private sector organisations in the UK and abroad.

BRE was founded in 1921 as the Building Research Board[4] at East Acton as part of the British Civil Service, as an effort to improve the quality of housing in the United Kingdom.

Having subsumed a number of other government organisations over the years, including the former Fire Research Station, and the Princes Risborough Laboratory, it was given executive agency status in 1990, before being privatised by the Department of the Environment on 19 March 1997.

[11][12][13] The final (phase 2) report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, published in September 2024, was critical of BRE suggesting its once recognised international status as a leader in fire safety had been compromised, talking of a "desire to put BRE's status in the industry and commercial position ahead of considerations of public safety.

"[14] Members of the House of Lords called for BRE to be stripped of its responsibility to certify modern methods of construction, following the Grenfell Inquiry criticism.