Regulations and Guidance
Latest
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In April 2026, long-awaited regulations to improve the fire safety of disabled and vulnerable people in England’s high-rise housing will come into force.
It means those responsible for fire safety in these buildings, known as responsible persons (RPs) in law, face a raft of new duties. The Responsible Person (RP) for a block would usually be its owner or manager.
The rules will apply to two types of flats: blocks that are 18 metres or seven storeys or higher, and smaller buildings over 11 metres or five storeys that have simultaneous evacuation strategies in place.
On 2nd December 2025, MHCLG released more detailed guidance explaining the responsibilities of responsible persons, advising them how to meet these responsibilities and the role of other groups including residents and fire authorities.
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As part of a series of free expert-led webinars to support industry on a range of key building control topics, the BSR is running a webinar dedicated for consultants on early learsnings from Building Assessments Certificate applications, on 2nd October 2025 (10am - 12pm).
The webinar will help consultants understand the regulator's expectations of how you can support principal accountable persons and accountable persons to comply with the law, without gold-plating requirements.
The session will cover the trends of what the BSR is seeing and guide you through good practice to increase the success rate of applications. The webinar includes a live Q&A, giving you the opportunity to ask questions and get the answers you need.
Consultants can register through this link: Consultants and BAC applications: Early learning which will take you to the registration portal. After registering you’ll receive a confirmation email which includes information about how to access the attendee hub where the webinar will take place.
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New fire safety rules are coming into force to support disabled and vulnerable residents in high-rise buildings. From 6th April 2026, the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 will require Responsible Persons to identify residents who may need help evacuating in a fire and to take steps to support them. These residents, referred to as relevant residents, may have mobility, sensory, or cognitive impairments.
The Regulations introduce Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (Residential PEEPs), which include:
- Identifying relevant residents
- A person-centred fire risk assessment
- An agreed emergency evacuation statement
- Optional consent-based sharing of information with the local Fire and Rescue Authority
- Ongoing review of plans and evacuation procedures
These duties are legally enforceable and apply to residential buildings over 18 metres or seven storeys, or 11 metres and above with a simultaneous evacuation strategy.
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On 30 January 2025, Andrew Saunders from the Building Safety Regulator hosted an exclusive webinar for members of The Property Institute, and their APs/PAPs, covering the latest insights and guidance on the BAC Application process for HRBs.
The webinar covered:
- Understanding the BAC assessment process
- Learning what criteria the assessors will focus on for each element of the application
- Preparing your BAC application to the standard required
- How the application will be assessed, and who by
- What criteria will be assessed in the Safety Case Report, Residents Engagement Strategy and mandatory occurrence reporting system information
TPI members can access the webinar recording here
- Building Safety Regulator
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In December 2024, the BSR updated its Making Buildings Safer webpage, featuring essential information on Building Assessment Certificate applications.
The updates include a new video presentation by Tim Galloway, delivered at The Property Institute’s Annual Conference in October, highlighting some of the common pitfalls in certificate applications. You can watch the video here.
- Building Safety Regulator