Insights
Fire safety, explained without the alarm.
Evidence-led notes on the regimes that actually affect your buildings — what changed, what it means for the duty holder, and what a proportionate response looks like.
Jul 2026London Plan Policy D12: what a fire statement actually needs to coverPolicy D12 of the London Plan requires every development in Greater London to demonstrate the highest standards of fire safety, with major schemes submitting a Fire Statement at the planning stage — this article sets out what that actually involves.Jul 2026The Responsible Person's duties under the Fire Safety OrderThe Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 puts a named duty-holder — not a committee, not "management" — in charge of fire safety at almost every non-domestic premises and every block of flats; this article sets out who that is and what the Order actually requires of them.Jul 2026PAS 9980 and FRAEW: what they actually mean for your buildingIf a lender, managing agent or fire and rescue service has mentioned PAS 9980 or a FRAEW, here is what those terms mean, what happens during the process, and what result to actually expect.Jul 2026BS 9991:2024: what actually changed for residential fire strategiesBS 9991:2024 replaced a nine-year-old standard, and the headline changes — a lower single-stair height limit and revised sprinkler thresholds — arrived alongside a separate statutory second-staircase rule that is easy to confuse it with.Jul 2026Building Safety Act gateways and occupied higher-risk building duties, explainedThe Building Safety Act 2022 is really two connected regimes: a gateway process that gates a higher-risk building through design and construction, and a safety case regime that governs it once people are living there. Knowing where one ends and the other begins matters as much as understanding either on its own.Jul 2026Regulation 38: the fire safety information handover, explainedRegulation 38 is a short entry in the Building Regulations with an outsized effect on how safely a building can be run afterwards — and it is also one of the most routinely under-delivered duties in the whole fire safety framework.Jul 2026BS 9792:2025: what replaces PAS 79-2 for housing fire risk assessmentsBSI published BS 9792:2025 on 1 August 2025, replacing PAS 79-2:2020 as the methodology for fire risk assessment in housing. Here is what changed, who it applies to, and what a responsible person should check before commissioning the next assessment.Jul 2026Foundation, intermediate or advanced: what BS 8674:2025 means for the assessor you appointBS 8674:2025 grades individual fire risk assessor competence against the risk of the building, in three tiers rather than a single bar. What the tiers mean, how the training market is catching up, and what to ask before you appoint.Jul 2026RPEEPs and BEEPs: what the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) Regulations require nowThe Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 came into force on 6 April 2026, placing RPEEP and BEEP duties on responsible persons for specified residential buildings. This article sets out who is in scope and what those duties now require.Jul 2026Article 36 determinations: the formal route when you and the fire authority disagreeWhen a responsible person and a fire and rescue authority agree a breach exists but not what fixes it, Article 36 of the Fire Safety Order gives them a joint route to a binding answer — and FSO Guidance Note 2, substantially revised on 3 July 2026, sets out how to use it.Jul 2026BS 8214:2026: what the revised fire door code of practice changesBSI published BS 8214:2026 on 20 March 2026, retiring the 2016 code of practice and widening its scope from timber fire doors to fire door assemblies of any material. Here is what the revision actually changes for specification, installation and maintenance.Jul 2026Type 1, 2, 3 or 4: which fire risk assessment does your building need?The four assessment types differ by how far the assessor looks — from a non-destructive check of the common parts to destructive sampling inside flats. Most blocks need a Type 1; evidence of risk, not habit, is what justifies going deeper.Jul 2026EWS1 or PAS 9980? What each one is — and which your building needsOne is a one-page declaration for lenders; the other is the national methodology for actually appraising an external wall. They are routinely conflated — and the confusion costs building owners time, money and mortgage transactions.Jul 2026How much does a FRAEW cost? What drives the feeFRAEW fees vary widely, but they vary for knowable reasons. This guide sets out what an appraisal under PAS 9980:2022 actually involves, what genuinely moves the fee, and why the cheapest quote is often the most expensive decision a building owner makes. Every building is priced on its own facts — so this is the honest version: the drivers, not a rate card.Jul 2026How much does a fire risk assessment cost? An honest guideFire risk assessment prices range from suspiciously cheap to unexplained. The fee has a small number of honest drivers — this guide sets them out, along with what a proper quote includes and the warning signs of an assessment that will not stand up.Jun 2026Lithium-ion battery fire risk in buildings: a proportionate responseLithium-ion batteries present a real and manageable fire risk in buildings; the practical answer for most duty holders is sound management arrangements rather than either alarm or inaction.May 2026The golden thread: keeping fire safety information that is actually usableThe golden thread obligation under the Building Safety Act 2022 means keeping the right information, in a usable form, so that it genuinely supports safe building management — not simply keeping records.Apr 2026Fire door compliance under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 placed specific, time-bound fire door duties on responsible persons for multi-occupied residential buildings; this article explains what those duties are and what compliance looks like in practice.Mar 2026PAS 9980 in practice: proportionate external wall appraisalPAS 9980:2022 sets out a risk-based framework for appraising the fire risk of external wall systems; applied properly, it enables proportionate decisions about buildings rather than reflexive remediation programmes.Feb 2026Common compartmentation deficiencies in post-war towersCompartmentation defects are common in post-war residential towers, and most are findable — but they tend to hide at the junctions between construction eras and at service penetrations rather than in the obvious places.Jan 2026Building Safety Act 2022: what principal accountable persons need to knowThe Building Safety Act 2022 introduced a tiered accountability framework for higher-risk buildings; this article sets out what it requires of principal accountable persons in plain, actionable terms.