As of 23 January 2023, new fire safety regulations are being introduced that will affect the owners and managers of high-rise residential buildings.
Initially put forward by the Home Office in May 2022, the purpose of the updated legislation is to deliver vital information to Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) to “assist them to plan and, if needed, provide an effective operational response” in the event of a fire.
Applying to England only, these new requirements involve the responsible persons of such high-rise premises (residential buildings that are at least seven storeys and/or 18 metres in height) providing their local FRS with detailed information about building plans, external wall systems, lifts and other key firefighting equipment, information boxes, and wayfinding signage.
In residential buildings with storeys over 11 metres in height, they will be required to “undertake annual checks of flat entrance doors and quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common parts”. Additionally, in all multi-occupied residential buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises, the responsible person will be required to provide fire safety instructions and fire door information to their residents. This includes instructions on how to report a fire, what to do once a fire has occurred, appropriate evacuation strategies for the building, and – where this is appropriate – the consideration of fire signage in other languages. The responsible person will also be required to provide residents with information relating to the importance of fire doors in fire safety.
As outlined in the government guidance: “These instructions will be provided to residents upon a change and on an annual basis to ensure that residents always have up-to-date information and an annual refresher when there is no change.”
On its website, the Guild of Residential Landlords indicated that in response to regulations 9 and 10, it intends to “add an A4 leaflet which will be added to the tenancy agreement by Tenancy Builder and separately for sending each year.”
The guidance iterates that the new regulations apply to the following:
- parts of the building that are used in common by the residents of two or more domestic premises (e.g. communal corridors and stairways)
- flat entrance doors
- the walls and floors that separate any domestic premises from other domestic premises, plant rooms, etc, or from parts of the building that are used in common by the occupants of two or more domestic premises
- plant rooms and other non-domestic areas of the building, such as tenant halls, offices, laundries, gymnasia, and commercial premises
- external walls of the building, including doors or windows within an external wall, and attachments to an external wall (e.g. balconies).
The regulations do not apply within individual flats “other than in respect of measures installed within flats for the safety of other residents of the building (e.g. sprinklers, smoke detectors connected to a communal fire alarm system, etc)”.
Notably, the regulations do not include the two recommendations on PEEPs that arose from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
As the Home Office restates: “We recognise that this is an important issue and so the government has consulted on an alternative package of initiatives to deliver against the Inquiry recommendations that relate to PEEPs and the government is considering all responses.
“The Inquiry recommendation on evacuation plans has a clear link with the issue of PEEPs and so we intend to deal with evacuation from high-rise, and other residential buildings, as a single issue.”
Graham Kewley, Group Manager and Head of Fire Safety Delivery at Dorset & Wiltshire FRS, said:
“These are important steps in strengthening existing fire safety legislation, and improving fire safety in multi-occupied residential buildings.
“We are encouraging Responsible Persons – usually the owner, site manager, or occupier of the premises, who is responsible for ensuring and maintaining correct fire safety and procedures – to familiarise themselves with the new regulations and to prepare for the significant changes being introduced.
"This includes reviewing their fire risk assessments and being clear on which parts of the new legislation apply to their premises, as there are differing requirements depending on the height of the building.”
George O’Reilly, Group Manager for Protection at East Sussex FRS, added: “We welcome the commencement of the Fire Safety Act and the bringing forward of the new Regulations, which are important steps forward in strengthening the Fire Safety Order and improving fire safety.
“These regulations will impose significant new legal requirements for responsible persons. Now is the time to take action if they have not already done so, and review their risk assessments.”
The responsible persons of high-rise residential buildings will be required to implement these changes as of 23 January 2023. The updated Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 have been made under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
The full government guidance can be found here.