02 October 2023
The Second Staircase Ruling: Cause for Celebration or Concern?
In December 2022, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, announced that new buildings taller than 30 metres would require a second staircase, a requirement immediately implemented by London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, in February 2023. However, in July 2023, Gove unexpectedly lowered the maximum height threshold to 18 metres, surprising the majority of construction industry.
The Home Builders Federation has said the threshold provides significant challenges for the industry, yet The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has called it a huge win for fire safety standards. Could both bodies be right?
Behind the Decision
The government’s move follows requirements for sprinklers and non-combustible facades, in response to the 2017 Grenfell Fire. The fire burned for 60 hours, claiming the lives of 74 people and injuring a further 70. At 67m, Grenfell Tower had only one staircase, making search and rescue operations more difficult as residents were also using it to escape.
In August 2022, the government issued a warning that builders should consider a second staircase in higher-risk buildings, such as those using MMC or housing vulnerable residents. However, according to reports, this recommendation did not have the impact the government had hoped for.
Requirements for second staircases in high-rise buildings are prevalent globally. Research conducted by McGill University in Montreal found that only the UK, South Korea and Switzerland did not require them beyond a certain threshold.
Nevertheless, Gove’s decision could necessitate a redesign of countless applications currently progressing through the planning system, and industry stakeholders have called for greater clarity on the requirements of the forthcoming legislation.
Industry Reaction
When Khan imposed the 30m threshold requirement in London, affordable housing developer, Peabody stated that it couldn’t complete the necessary redesigns until the building regulation guidance was revised.
Now the threshold has been lowered further, yet many questions still remain unanswered. How will projects that have started on-site be affected? Will proposals and planning permissions based on previous regulation still be honoured?
The Department of Levelling Up, Homes and Communities has yet to outline how the policy will align with the introduction of the Building Safety Act in October. On August 14, The Housing Forum wrote to Gove asking for more detail. Among the questions it posed were: is one staircase intended for residents and one for firefighters? Do both stairs need a separate core or would two scissor staircases inside a single core be acceptable? Do travel distances to both staircases need to be the same?
While at the end of August, Gove received a letter from 29 fire safety professionals calling for him to scrap the new requirement altogether, warning that it could have unintended consequences. The group was concerned that the current proposals do not represent an outcome-based approach to safety. They argue that there is a greater need to establish and restore confidence in existing buildings.
“Devaluing existing buildings because of improving standards in future buildings has a very real and potentially catastrophic effect on residents, funders, developers and insurers,” the letter said.
The fire safety professionals believe that single-stair buildings can be made safe through compartmentalisation, smoke control and adequate firefighter facilities. However, they also recommend that buildings over 18m should have a staircase with enough capacity to allow all residents to evacuate simultaneously.
Counting the Cost
It is difficult to quantify the impact of the ruling. In theory the inclusion of a second staircase is likely to reduce the profitability of a housing development as it takes up space from the area that could otherwise be sold.
In response to the earlier 30m threshold ruling for London, Arcadis predicted that taller, residential developments currently in procurement would be delayed by roughly nine months. It also anticipated a reduction in tender price inflation to 2% this year.
Other reports have stated that developers in London alone are pausing plans on more than 100,000 homes, which could result in redundancies.
In the longer term, the ruling could lead to higher towers as developers look to maximise floor space in second stair cores. London Square, a property builder and developer, already plans to increase the height of two east London towers due to the new fire safety measures.
The requirement could also result in developers’ reluctance to refurb existing single-stair buildings, leading to an increase in demolition. This move would fly in the face of recent government guidance to refurb and redevelop where possible, exemplified by Gove’s recent rejection of Marks & Spencer’s plans to rebuild its Oxford Street store, partly because of its embodied carbon impact.[5]
Fire safety is a complex and emotive issue, not surprising as the consequences of decisions such as this literally are a matter of life and death. It is understandable that RIBA and other fire safety bodies have welcomed Gove’s second staircase decision. As one commentator has said, a single staircase presents a single point of failure. If it cannot provide safe passage then residents are left with no other means of escape. Yet the government has left too many unanswered questions regarding how this requirement will work in practice, making it difficult for the construction industry to fully understand its eventual impact.
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