Search the Building Regulations for the phrase "fire strategy" and you will not find a requirement to produce one. That fact is regularly used, usually by someone hoping to avoid the cost, to argue that a strategy is optional.
It is not a good argument and here is why.
The legal position, accurately stated
The Building Regulations impose functional requirements, not document requirements. Part B of Schedule 1 requires that a building be designed and constructed so that:
- there are appropriate provisions for early warning and adequate means of escape (B1)
- internal linings resist the spread of flame (B2)
- stability is maintained and fire spread within the structure is inhibited (B3)
- external walls and roofs resist fire spread (B4)
- reasonable facilities are provided to assist firefighters (B5)
The duty is to satisfy those requirements. The fire strategy is the normal and for anything beyond the simplest project the only practical, means of demonstrating that you have.
Approved Document B is statutory guidance, not law. It states plainly that following the guidance does not guarantee compliance with the legal requirements and that it may not provide appropriate guidance where a case is unusual in terms of design, setting, use, scale or technology. It specifically lists non-standard conditions including buildings with unusual occupancies or high complexity, very large or very tall buildings, large timber buildings and buildings using some modern methods of construction.
So the accurate formulation is this: a fire strategy is not named as a legal requirement but the duty it discharges is and in practice a building control body cannot approve a non-trivial submission without one.
Where the requirement does appear by name
Two places make it close to explicit.
Regulation 38, Building Regulations 2010
Where building work consists of or includes the erection or extension of a building to which the Fire Safety Order applies or is carried out in connection with a relevant change of use, the person carrying out the work must give fire safety information to the responsible person, no later than the date of completion or first occupation, whichever is earlier.
Approved Document B states that the aim of regulation 38 is achieved when the responsible person has all the information needed to understand and implement the fire safety strategy of the building, maintain the fire safety systems and carry out an effective fire risk assessment. It states that where a fire safety strategy has been prepared as part of the design and construction process, it should be made available to the relevant duty holder.
Since 1 October 2023, regulation 38 has been substantially strengthened. Regulation 38(2A) requires the responsible person to give the person carrying out the work a notice acknowledging receipt and confirming the information is sufficient to enable them to understand, operate and maintain the building and its fire safety systems. Regulation 38(2B) requires the person carrying out the work to notify the relevant authority that they have done this and received the acknowledgement or what steps they took to obtain it. Timescales are five days in most cases, seven where third party certification applies, thirty where self-certification applies.
The practical effect: handover of fire safety information is now a recorded, notifiable event. It is very difficult to satisfy regulation 38 without a fire strategy because the regulation expects the duty holder to be able to implement one.
Building control approval applications
An application for building control approval with full plans must include, among other things, a statement as to whether the building is one to which the Fire Safety Order applies or will apply after completion, a description of the existing building including its current use, height and number of storeys and a description of the proposed work including intended use, height and number of storeys after the work.
Where Part B of Schedule 1 imposes a requirement in relation to proposed building work, the application must be accompanied by four copies of the full plans rather than two. The extra copies exist because the building control body must consult the fire and rescue authority.
That consultation is where strategies get tested. A fire and rescue authority reviewing a submission for a complex building without a fire strategy has nothing to review.
When you will definitely need one
New buildings
Any new building of any complexity. For a single storey extension to a house, no. For anything a building control body will scrutinise against Part B, yes.
Extensions
Where the extension affects means of escape, compartmentation, travel distances or fire service access, which is most extensions to non-domestic buildings.
Material change of use
Regulation 5 defines material change of use. It occurs where, after the change:
- the building is used as a dwelling, where previously it was not
- the building contains a flat, where previously it did not
- the building is used as an hotel or boarding house, where previously it was not
- the building is used as an institution, where previously it was not
- the building is used as a public building, where previously it was not
- the building is not a building described in classes 1 to 6 in Schedule 2, where previously it was
- the building, containing at least one dwelling, contains a greater or lesser number of dwellings
- the building contains a room for residential purposes, where previously it did not
- the building, containing at least one room for residential purposes, contains a greater or lesser number of such rooms
- the building is used as a shop, where previously it was not
- the building becomes a building described in regulation 7(4)(a), being a relevant building for external wall material purposes
Regulation 6(1)(a) then requires that, in all cases of material change of use of the whole of a building, such work as is necessary is carried out to ensure the building complies with B1, B2, B3, B4(2) and B5, among other requirements.
Regulation 6(1)(c) applies B4(1), external fire spread over walls, to any building exceeding eleven metres in height. That threshold was reduced from 18 metres with effect from 1 December 2022 and it catches a great many conversions that would previously have escaped.
Where the change of use is only of part of a building, regulation 6(2) applies the same requirements to that part, except that for B4(1) the whole building must comply.
In short: a material change of use triggers the full set of fire safety functional requirements and demonstrating compliance requires a strategy. See our separate guide on change of use and fit-out.
Higher-risk buildings
For buildings at least 18 metres in height or at least seven storeys with at least two residential units, the Building Safety Regulator is the building control authority and a fire strategy is central to the Gateway 2 application. Applications are routinely rejected for inadequate fire strategies. See our separate Gateway 2 guide.
Any design departing from Approved Document B
Extended travel distances, reduced stair widths, open-plan layouts, atria, large undivided volumes, unusual occupancies. If you want the flexibility, you need the justification and the justification lives in the strategy.
When it is strongly expected, though not strictly triggered
- Complex existing buildings with no documented strategy, particularly before any significant alteration
- Buildings where original documentation is missing and where the fire risk assessor is having to infer design intent
- Large or unusual HMOs and conversions, where housing and fire authorities both take an interest
- Buildings being sold, purchased or refinanced, where due diligence will ask for it
- Buildings with a history of piecemeal alteration, where nobody can say what the compartmentation is supposed to be
- Insurance-driven requirements, where an underwriter wants to understand what they are covering
Why building control rejects submissions
The recurring reasons, in our experience and in published commentary from building control bodies and the Building Safety Regulator, are the same each time.
No strategy at all, only architectural drawings with fire door symbols. Drawings show what, they do not show why.
A strategy that does not match the drawings. The document says 30 metre travel distance, the plan scales at 38.
Departures asserted rather than justified. "Travel distance extended due to sprinkler protection" is a statement. The justification is the analysis showing why the extension is acceptable given the risk profile and the confirmation that the sprinkler system will be installed to the standard the analysis assumed.
Wrong standard applied. BS 9999 used for a residential building where BS 9991 applies or a mix of the two cherry-picked for the most favourable parameters from each. Mixing codes to take the best of both is one of the fastest routes to rejection.
No management assumptions stated so the reviewer cannot tell what the design depends on.
Submitted too early. A strategy prepared at concept stage and not developed alongside the design will not match the design being submitted.
The practical answer
If you are asking whether you can avoid producing a fire strategy, the useful reframing is this: the strategy is not an additional cost imposed on the project. It is the record of design decisions that are being made anyway, by someone, competently or otherwise.
The choice is not whether to have a fire strategy. It is whether to have one written down.
Frequently asked questions
Is a fire strategy a legal requirement in the UK? Not by name. The Building Regulations impose functional requirements under Part B and a fire strategy is the normal means of demonstrating compliance. For higher-risk buildings, Gateway 2 makes it effectively unavoidable and regulation 38 requires any strategy that has been prepared to be handed to the responsible person.
Do I need a fire strategy for a house extension? Usually not as a standalone document, though Part B still applies to the work. For loft conversions and extensions affecting escape from a dwelling, the building control body will want to see how B1 is satisfied.
Do I need one for an office fit-out? It depends on whether the works constitute building work and whether they affect means of escape or compartmentation. Partitioning a large floor plate usually does. See our change of use and fit-out guide.
Does planning permission require a fire strategy? For higher-risk buildings, Gateway 1 at planning stage requires a fire statement and consultation with the Building Safety Regulator. For other buildings, planning and building control are separate processes and a fire strategy sits with building control.
Who is responsible for producing it? Commercially, the client commissions it, usually through the design team. Under the Building Regulations, the duty to comply rests with the person carrying out the work and, for higher-risk building work, with the appointed duty holders.
What happens if we build without one and it is queried later? Retrospective demonstration of compliance is possible but expensive and where the work is already covered up it may require intrusive investigation. Building control also has enforcement powers and under the Building Safety Act 2022 amendments the time limit for a section 36 notice requiring removal or alteration of non-compliant work was extended from 12 months to 10 years.
