The new regulations that require the second stairs will not apply until at least 2026, the Secretary of Housing has announced.
Developers will have a 30-month transition period within which building regulation applications can follow existing fire safety standards, housing secretary Michael Gove said in a statement on Tuesday (Oct. 24 ).
The 30-month period will start after the publication of the amendments to Approved Document B, which sets out the legal guidelines for complying with fire safety building regulations. Gove announced in July that new residential buildings over 18 meters would require two staircases.
Gove said the single-storey housing schemes over 18 meters currently being delivered were safe, stressing that they would not need remedial work and that he hoped lenders and insurers would co-operate. .
“With these transitional arrangements, we ensure that projects that already have single-scale planning permission, the safety of which will have been considered as part of this application, can continue without further delay if they wish.” , he said.
“This means that, for some years, we will continue to see buildings of more than 18 meters with individual staircases on the market. I want to be absolutely clear that existing and future single-story buildings are not inherently unsafe.
“There will be no need to add a second staircase later, when they are built to the relevant standards, well maintained and properly managed.
“I hope that lenders, managing agents, underwriters and others will behave accordingly and not impose onerous additional requirements, hurdles or criteria on single-scale buildings in terms of lending, pricing, management or otherwise.”
Gove’s comments suggest that developers do not need to redesign their current high-rise schemes to include a second staircase. The statement contrasts with comments from Dame Judith Hackitt, chair of the Industry Safety Steering Group, who said in March that the ongoing construction of single-storey high-rises was a “betrayal” of future residents.
Approved single-scale applications have 18 months to start construction “in earnest”, otherwise they will have to make another building regulation application under the new guidelines.
Gove clarified that the threshold for meeting this requirement would be when concrete is poured for the permanent placement of trench, pad or pond foundations or for the permanent placement of piles.
A spokesman for the Federation of House Builders said: “We welcome today’s announcement of transitional provisions for secondary ladders and the Government’s strengthening of the safety of existing standards. New buildings are now built to extremely high safety standards and the industry is committed to working with government to maintain this progress.”
Contractors had halted work on a number of schemes, including a £1.5bn Wates scheme in London, after the government began consulting on the requirements of the second tier late last year. Other approved projects proposed major design amendments to include another staircase, including two in East London.
Gove did not offer further details on the design of the new mandatory stairs, although he indicated that the Building Safety Regulator was working to agree the requirements.
The Housing Forum wrote an open letter to Gove in August, asking for further clarification on the design requirements for second staircases, including their basic purpose and technical requirements.
Anna Clarke, director of policy and public affairs, wrote: “The sector is struggling with the lack of a clear roadmap setting out how these proposals fit in with other building security changes, giving certainty and confidence to the ‘time to invest for the future’.
