Research and analysis

Fire safety: Construction technologies, design and usage (executive summary)

Published 22 December 2025

Applies to England

Background

The work reported in this report was carried out by a BRE Global Project team under a Contract placed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Any views expressed are not necessarily those of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

This final report is delivered as part of a Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) (formerly the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)) project titled “Fire Safety: Construction Technologies, Design and Usage”, DLUHC Contract reference CPD/004/121/082.

Executive summary

The aim of the project was to assess whether Approved Document B (AD B) provides up to date guidance for common buildings, sufficiently considering modern design, construction and usage practices to meet the minimum requirements under Part B of Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations 2010 (as amended). 

This project was to provide DLUHC with sufficient information to consider whether AD B adequately addresses the risks presented by a modern design and construction for common buildings, and an understanding of where further research is needed to generate future policy options.

This project had the following specific objectives:

• To identify and review modern construction technologies and trends in design and building use (Objective A), and
• To review the current provisions in Approved Document B (AD B) considering the application of modern construction technologies and trends in design and building use (Objective B).

This work involved the active participation of a Project Technical Steering Group of industry experts.

The project had three overlapping phases: 

1. Gathering data and information; analysing existing literature/information; consulting with various stakeholders; considering other Part B workstreams; devising and launching a survey and considering responses; presenting all of these strands of information to an interactive Technical Steering Group session, which resulted in 20 broad themes.
2. An initial sifting of the survey responses for the interactive Technical Steering Group session and detailed reviewing of the responses; creating two heat maps for AD B (Volumes 1 and 2) paragraphs causing most concern i.e. that AD B was not keeping pace with modern construction technologies, design and building use.
3. Holding workshops with Technical Steering Group participants to consider 14 of the themes, arising from the workshops, identifying potential considerations for future AD B revisions.

This report contains a compilation of the findings of the project and provides draft options / recommendations for potential future work to address the identified issues and the challenges to AD B.

In Objective A (section 3 of this report), BRE Global identified and reviewed modern construction technologies and trends in design and building use.  This revealed an abundance of drivers and challenges.  The diverse nature of challenges impacting AD B was further shown by 11 examples.  Each example was described in terms of its driver, its evidence, the issues impacting AD B, the implications for AD B and finally the challenges to AD B arising.  Three of the 11 examples were deep dives into specific topic areas.

In section 6 of this report, BRE Global identified implications for AD B (Volumes 1 and 2) and future work / direction to inform future AD B editions for each of issues arising from a) the survey hot spots and b) the 14 themes identified during the workshop sessions.  This mirrors the structure used in the 11 examples.  

The Survey hot spots gave rise to 17 issues affecting AD B Volume 1 and 15 issues affecting AD B Volume 2.  Each issue was described in terms of its background information, its driver, its evidence (whether just respondent-driven i.e. derived from ‘practitioner viewpoint(s)’ or otherwise), the implications for AD B and challenges arising for AD B, with suggestions as to what AD B might address in the future.  

BRE Global identified 22 considerations arising from the 14 themes, which were analysed using the same structure as that used for the Survey Issues and the 11 examples.

It has not been possible to single out top matters for consideration.  All sections in the report need to be considered in toto.  

This work has proved to be a fruitful undertaking as it has shone a light on so many matters affecting / potentially affecting AD B.  It is, however, only a snapshot at a point in time.  A review such as this needs to be iterative.  The intelligence derived from constant horizon scanning would provide the Department responsible for AD B with continuous evidence, to inform its decision making.

A danger of not making this an ongoing and iterative review can be very clearly demonstrated by looking at one of the examples (example 9) in this report.

AD B Edition(s) considered in this report

At the time of the survey, AD B (2019 edition – incorporating 2020 amendments) was the relevant edition of AD B.  During the course of the project, AD B was revised to include 2022, 2025, 2026 and 2029 amendments.  BRE Global has considered the content of these amendments in this report and associated circulars, Part B Frequently Asked Questions and other technical guidance.