New Fire Regulations for Flats and High Rise Buildings in England

Coming into force in January 2023 and following on from the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower inquiry, the government has introduced new regulations covering fire safety for domestic premises in England.

For high rise residential buildings, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require the responsible person for the building to take a number of actions, including:

• Installing a secure information box in a location in or on the building which is readily accessible to the fire and rescue authority, providing certain specified information about the building in the box and inspecting the box at least annually.
• Preparing a floor plan containing relevant information and placing it in the secure information box
• Preparing a record of the design of the external walls of the building, including details of the materials from which they are constructed
• Carrying out monthly routine checks of lifts for use by firefighters, evacuation lifts and essential fire-fighting equipment within the building
• Ensuring that the building contains clear markings of floor identification and identification of domestic premises
• Electronically providing the local fire and rescue authority with the floor plan and information regarding design and materials in external walls

For all buildings which contain two or more sets of domestic premises and which contains common parts through which residents would need to evacuate in the case of an emergency, the regulations also require the responsible person to:

• Display fire safety instructions in a conspicuous part of the building
• Provide the certain information about fire doors to the residents of the building, e.g. informing residents that they should be kept shut when not in use, that they should not tamper with self-closing devices and that they should report any faults

If renting domestic property is part of your business, or you provide or arrange accommodation for your employees, then you should be aware of these changes and any potential impact they may have on your operations.

For the purposes of these regulations, a high rise residential building is defined as one which contains two or more sets of domestic premises and is at least 18 metres above ground level or has at least seven storeys 9not including storeys below ground level.

Full details of the regulations can be found at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2022/547/contents/made