In January 2022, Ballymore withdrew plans for a residential high-rise in Canary Wharf following a last-minute intervention by the London Fire Brigade (LFB). The organization had expressed its concern about the only evacuation route from the 51-storey building. A week later, plans for a similar single-storey high-rise half a mile from Grenfell Tower were adapted after LFB raised concerns.
This marked a new shift in fire safety discourse. Last December, the government launched a consultation on whether to impose a second staircase on new residential buildings over 30 meters high. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, went further and in February required all new developments over 30 meters to provide two evacuation routes. Meanwhile, a number of housing plans stalled due to uncertainty.
At the end of July this year, the housing secretary, Michael Gove, announced that the proposed threshold for second stairs would be reduced to 18 metres. He claimed that this announcement brought “consistency and certainty”.
Some were delighted with Gove’s decision – the Royal Institution of British Architects hailed it as “a vital step towards a safer built environment for everyone”. However, many contractors had mixed emotions when they saw a new tranche of schemes that will require rethinking.
For ongoing jobs, it’s not as simple as moving a few aisles. Adding a second core in a fixed amount of space is likely to require changes in the size and number of apartments, the way they are arranged and the height of the building. Years of design work may have to be scrapped.
Wates chief executive Eoghan O’Lionaird said that if the number of marketable homes is to be reduced, “some schemes will be viable and some ultimately may not, because they are available, the size of the plot is fixed”.
Among homebuilders, one complaint is the lack of specificity about what constitutes a suitable second staircase. Trade body the House Builders’ Federation (HBF) called for more clarity on the proposed requirements and transitional provisions for large-scale developments. “Any delays or missteps by the government will have a serious impact on housing supply and development viability and will cause significant problems for businesses,” he said in a statement.
A letter sent to Gove in mid-August by housing and construction coalition group Housing First said: “The lack of technical specifications means that those who design or build tall buildings are not given clear instructions on exactly what to do. They are also unable to make reasonable evidence-based decisions about risk for themselves, because they are unclear about the basic purpose of the two scales.
The uncertainty facing companies with large homebuilding portfolios adds another layer to the housing slowdown caused by rising interest rates and material cost inflation.
On the bright side, the damage may only be short-lived. O’Lionaird said: “I would expect that as inflation eases … the overall cost of building will come to a point where it becomes affordable again. I would expect in the next 12-24 months schemes [hit by the new rule] will be viable again.”
