Guidance

Managing safety risks in high-rise residential buildings: a detailed guide

Published 19 September 2023

Applies to England

This guide is for accountable persons of a high-rise residential building. It will help you understand what you can do to manage risks as set out in the guidance safety case for a high-rise residential building.

The information in this guide does not cover all circumstances or constitute legal advice. It will explain how you can demonstrate you have taken all reasonable steps to manage building safety risks.

Take all reasonable steps

The law says accountable persons must take all reasonable steps to prevent building safety risks from happening, and to reduce the severity of any incidents if they do happen. The Building Safety Act 2022 defines building safety risks as the risk of spread of fire or structural failure.

What is a reasonable step depends on your building’s individual circumstances and risks. The actions you take should be proportionate to the building safety risks and account for the cost and practicality of carrying out the measure.

Check existing safety measures

You should try to find and keep a record of all the relevant safety standards which were in place when your building was built and following any later refurbishments.

You should be confident that the building safety measures in place will work as planned. You should be able to prove these were designed, installed, maintained, and inspected:

• by competent people
• in accordance with relevant legislation, standards, and manufacturers’ recommendations

You must keep a record of the steps you have taken to find missing information. You can use it to demonstrate what you have done to find missing information to the Building Safety Regulator.

If you find problems with your safety measures and they are not sufficient, you should review and amend them. It is important you keep this in mind as your building ages and equipment and technical progress develops. Record any changes to maintenance regimes and the reasons for the changes.

If a single measure controls any safety risks, your building is vulnerable if that measure fails. Using more than one measure provides more than one level of protection.

Safety management system

How you organise to manage your building’s safety risks is as important as the physical measures you put in place. You should think about planning, organisation, control, monitoring, and review. All of these aspects should appear in, and be delivered through, your organisation’s safety management system.

You can read more about safety management systems in the building safety guides for accountable persons.

Changes to the building and refurbishment

If your building undergoes any changes or refurbishment, you should check that they do not affect building safety, both in the refurbished parts of the building and in the building overall.

You should be able to demonstrate that anyone undertaking building work has the necessary skills, knowledge, experience, and behaviours (competence).

Changes to other areas of mixed-use buildings can also impact the areas you are accountable for, so you will need to gather information and assurance about these changes and check if they impact your part of the building.

During any changes or refurbishment, take the opportunity to see if any additional reasonable steps could be taken as part of the work. For example, an additional measure may now be possible or reasonable due to technical advancements in building safety.

Fire prevention and protective measures often overlap. Accountable persons should be aware of duties under the Fire Safety Order on legislation.gov.uk, and the need for co-operation with the Responsible Person when considering changes to the building.

Keep information about risk prevention and protective measures

Each accountable person must keep and update information on prevention and protective measures. This includes:

• details of the original design and construction, including drawings
• the current condition of the building
• the types of refurbishment or other changes that have taken place

Stop or reduce the likelihood of a risk

Preventative measures aim to stop or reduce the likelihood of a building safety risk happening. This section describes some of the common preventative measures. However, it is not an exhaustive list and other measures may be present or reasonable.

Preventing the spread of fire

The best way to avoid the spread of fire is to prevent a fire from starting in the first place.

Compartmentation

Fire compartments are fire-resisting enclosures providing fire separation between parts of the building. Typical fire compartments include:

• individual residential units
• service risers
• staircase enclosures

In mixed-use buildings, fire compartmentation should also separate residential units from the rest of the building. The purpose of fire compartments is to prevent fire spreading from where it starts to other compartments. Fire compartmentation can also help to protect the means of escape from the building.

Fire compartments, and other fire barriers, must be designed, built, and maintained properly to be effective against fire spread.

Effective fire resistance to parts of the building’s structure helps to prevent structural collapse if an incident happens.

Fire doors

Fire-resisting door sets, normally referred to as fire doors, help to prevent the spread of fire and sometimes smoke.

Fire doors help to protect a building’s escape routes and offer fire resistance for a specified number of minutes.

Fire door sets should be specified and installed correctly by a competent person. A fire door set includes the door itself and the frame and door furniture such as locks and handles.

Check your fire doors regularly to ensure they remain in good working condition and will perform as intended in a fire. You should check for:

• missing or broken self-closing devices
• damaged doors or frames
• doors replaced with non-fire-resisting types

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 on legislation.gov.uk, require the Responsible Person for a building check fire doors regularly.

Fire stopping

Fire stopping provides a seal to prevent the passage of fire where utility services such as water pipes or electricity cables, penetrate fire compartments. Some fire stops also prevent the passage of smoke.

As well as ensuring initial integrity, pay particular attention to fire stopping during any changes or refurbishment. These may be changes made by you, or by contractors working on the building. They could also be residents making changes to their own flats, such as fitting a new bathroom suite or installing a new broadband connection cable.

If you need temporary measures while work is ongoing, agree these when planning the work.

Cavity barriers

Cavity barriers close voids (open spaces) to stop unrestricted movement of smoke and flame. Cavity barriers can be used in:

• ceiling voids
• roof spaces
• wall cavities
• between floors
• around window reveals

As with fire stopping, refurbishment or other changes to the building can have an impact on cavity barriers. Changes may affect the integrity of what is already there, or need extra cavity barriers. Uninformed contractors can easily destroy cavity barriers when carrying out their work. You should ensure contractors working onsite understand the importance of such measures.

Structural prevention measures

A number of measures help promote structural integrity to prevent a structural building safety risk happening. These include:

• initial design and construction
• the competence (skill, knowledge, experience and behaviours) of those involved
• preventing the ingress of water or other substances that might degrade or weaken the building’s structure over time
• maintenance and inspection, including acting on any issues found

Other risk prevention measures

Other measures that may prevent or reduce the likelihood of an incident occurring include:

• maintenance and inspection of electrical installations in common parts of the building
• lightning protection systems
• measures to prevent, or minimise the effect of, arson
• gas safety measures
• avoiding the build-up of rubbish

Reduce the severity of an incident if one occurs

Protective measures reduce the severity of an incident if one occurs. This section describes some of the most common protective measures, but it is not exhaustive and other measures may be present or reasonable.

Evacuation strategies

Stay put

Many high-rise residential buildings are designed to support a ‘stay put’ approach, sometimes known as ‘defend in place’. This means only the people in the compartment where the fire starts (or who are directly affected) are evacuated initially.

People in other areas of the building, who are unaffected by smoke or heat, remain there, safe from the fire. However, they can evacuate if they feel threatened by the fire or are told to leave by the fire service. No-one can be prevented from leaving if they want to.

A ‘stay put’ policy relies on effective compartmentation, among other measures. Problems with the integrity of compartmentation will affect the viability of a ‘stay put’ policy.

Simultaneous evacuation

Simultaneous evacuation means evacuating the whole building and everyone leaves the building during a fire. This approach requires:

• a way of alerting residents in the event of a fire, for example, a fire detection and alarm system
• enough exit routes for all the residents

Choosing a strategy

The appropriate strategy for each building depends on its original design. It also depends on any subsequent developments that may affect the viability of an evacuation approach.

You should check that the measures designed to support the evacuation strategy being used are in place and working as intended.

People need to know what they should do in the event of an emergency. This is often done using signs, supported by the information required to be given to residents under the Building Safety Act and fire legislation. Residents should also know what to do if they are in a common area, such as a corridor or community room, when a fire breaks out.

Means of escape

Means of escape are the evacuation routes and exits used by building occupants to reach a place of safety in the event of an incident. It is vital that residents can always use these routes and exits safely. This must be factored into the design and construction of any new building or refurbishment.

Sometimes you might need additional safety measures, where there are:

• buildings with extended corridors
• mixed-use buildings, for example where residential floors are above office or retail premises
• very tall buildings

For existing occupied buildings, make sure the means of escape still work effectively. This includes:

• general maintenance, inspection, and testing
• ensuring corridors are kept clear
• checking fire doors are not propped open or otherwise compromised
• confirming emergency lighting is working

Travel distances, both within residential units and as part of escape routes, should be in accordance with relevant guidance, or constructed and maintained in-line with the building’s fire strategy. If you cannot meet these standards, you might need to employ extra measures.

Fire detection and alarm

It’s not common for high-rise residential buildings, such as blocks of flats, to have a communal fire alarm system on the residential floors. A commercial fire alarm system may be required for common areas used by multiple households like lounges or laundries, or places where people are employed to work.

A commercial standard fire detection system can be used to operate active fire safety measures for example, releasing magnetic locking mechanisms on exit doors, returning lift cars to the ground floor, or operating smoke control and smoke ventilation systems.

Each residential unit, where people live, should have smoke alarms. These are alarms for domestic use and are not usually linked to any other system. Smoke alarms should be checked regularly and changed when their expiry dates are up, as should carbon monoxide detectors where present. You should raise residents’ awareness of alarms, so they have the best chance of escaping a fire.

If your building does have a communal fire alarm, it should comply with the correct standard (BS 5839 part 1). Regular maintenance will ensure it works as specified.

Sprinklers

Automatic fire suppression systems, often known as sprinklers, trigger when the temperature in a room reaches 60-70°C. When buildings have sprinklers, they are usually provided within individual residential units rather than common areas.

Sprinklers can tackle a fire soon after it starts, helping occupants escape the burning compartment. They can also help to reduce fire damage.

Structural protection

A fire in a building can affect its structural integrity. Structural elements of a building can be protected by cladding them with a fire-resistant material, or by using a protective coating. The condition of the cladding should be checked by regular inspection or surveys.

Other protective measures

Other measures that may reduce the severity of a fire include:

• facilities provided for the fire and rescue services, such as dry and wet firefighting rising mains and firefighting lifts
• smoke control systems
• gas cut offs and utility isolation points
• fire protection to service shafts and risers
• emergency lighting