New legislative reforms will improve the safety of residential buildings across England and Wales in the wake of the Grenfell inquiry and the introduction of Awaab's law, an expert has said.
In England Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (Residential PEEPs) will be required from 2026, with legislation placing new duties on building owners and managers in high rise and higher-risk residential buildings to improve fire safety and the evacuation of disabled and vulnerable people.
New guidance, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government, establishes a series of measures and protocols to improve fire safety in residential buildings following recommendations set out in Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report, which called for PEEPs to be prepared for “all residents whose ability to self-evacuate may be compromised”. The regulations will only apply in England and will come into force in April 2026.
Katherine Metcalfe of Pinsent Masons, who specialises in building safety, said: “The new system for Residential PEEPs is highly reliant on cooperation between the responsible person and residents,” she said. “A pragmatic approach from both will be required to implement evacuation plans which are workable and affordable”.
This development come amid other reforms to improve residents’ safety in England. In early July the government published a consultation on new decency standards for social and private rented sector housing, which will enable landlords to be fined for serious health hazards in privately rented properties.
To be ‘decent’ a home must be free from Category 1 hazards – which includes issues like serious dampness, structural collapse, and fire risks – be in a reasonable state of repair with clear parameters laid out as to what this means; have reasonably modern facilities; meet new ‘thermal comfort requirements’ related to minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) and be free of any damp or mould. The consultation will close for public comment on 10 September.
These proposals complement ‘Awaab’s Law’, which will set timescales for repairs to private rented sector properties and end blanket bans on renting to those on benefits or with children, among other measures. The legislation, which comes into force in October 2025, comes in the wake of the death of Awaab Ishek, who died in 2020 as result of a severe respiratory condition due to prolonged exposure to mould in his home.
Metcalfe said the reforms were an attempt to bring greater accountability to the residential housing sector. “The government is pressing on with reforms which will impact on the safety of all residential buildings in England,” she said. “These flow not just from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, but also from the light that the Awaab's law campaign has shone on the variable quality of rented housing in the UK.”
The government is also preparing to publish a draft leasehold and commonhold reform bill that will strengthen leaseholder protections in England and Wales later this year.
As part of a broader package of reform, the draft law also introduces mandatory qualifications for managing agents in a long-awaited step towards regulating the sector. This follows a commitment made by the previous government in 2018 to regulate the entire property sector, including managing agents and a government-commissioned report (56 pages/ 55KB) in 2019 led by Lord Best which proposed that a new public body should be established to regulate the sector. A consultation on the draft law closes on 26 September.
The Welsh government has also outlined its next steps to improve fire safety in occupied residential buildings in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Under the proposals, there will be new regulations for high-risk buildings and significant reforms to building control systems to prevent fires. The legislation also aims to clarify who is responsible for the safety of residents by creating clear lines of accountability for duty holders to assess and manage building safety. Residents will also have new responsibilities to minimise the risk of fires.
Under the Building Safety (Wales) Bill, there are four categories of “regulated buildings”, based on height and houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) status. All buildings containing more than two residential units will be regulated. Each category of related building attracts a degree of regulation which is proportionate to risk. Hotels are not excluded from the definition of “regulated buildings” and may therefore be regulated if they contain residential units, such as staff flats.
For regulated buildings, the bill will largely replace the existing Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. If approved by the Senedd, the legislation is expected to come into force in April 2027. Separate legislation will be brought forward to regulate building work in Wales.
Metcalfe said: “There are some interesting differences between the Welsh legislation and the UK’s government’s approach in England. Rather than adding building safety to an already crowded area of regulation, the Welsh Building Safety Bill looks to rationalise the law into a coherent approach based on risk.”
Elsewhere in the UK, in March the Scottish government published its own response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report, outlining plans to strengthen building and fire safety standards and improve compliance and enforcement. However, no legislation has yet been tabled. In Northern Ireland, the government has said it is in the process of developing new policy and legislation in the wake of the tragedy to improve the safety of high-rise residential buildings (HRRBs).
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