Planning: Fire and Rescue Services

(asked on 23rd November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of integrating the English planning and building inspectorate systems to help ensure that Fire Authority planning application recommendations are implemented.


Answered by
Christopher Pincher Portrait
Christopher Pincher
This question was answered on 1st December 2021

Following the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017 the Government commissioned the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety led by Dame Judith Hackitt. The report highlighted the need to transform the fire and building safety regime and recommended that “some minimum requirements around fire safety will need to be addressed when local planning authorities are determining planning applications and will require input from those with the relevant expertise.”

The review took into consideration the experience of other countries’ building regulatory frameworks. It noted that many of the concerns recognised with the English regulatory framework were shared across different countries. This included deviations from designs, potential conflicts of interest for third-party inspectors, lack of adequate competence, as well as lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities. The review’s findings and subsequent recommendations were also informed by case studies from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Finland, the outcome of which was to move towards a culture of shared responsibility in how our planning system approaches building and fire safety.

In response to the review’s recommendations, the Government introduced new requirements known as planning gateway one on 1st August 2020, which require the developer to submit a fire statement setting out fire safety considerations specific to the development with a relevant application for planning permission for development which involves one or more relevant buildings.

Relevant buildings under planning gateway one must contain two or more dwellings or educational accommodation and meet the height condition of 18 metres or more, or 7 or more storeys.

These changes are intended to help ensure that applicants and decision-makers consider planning issues relevant to fire safety, bringing forward-thinking on fire safety matters as they relate to land use planning to the earliest possible stage in the development process and result in better schemes which fully integrate thinking on fire safety.

Additional guidance on fire safety and high-residential buildings can be found in the following planning practice guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fire-safety-and-high-rise-residential-buildings-from-1-august-2021

Reticulating Splines