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Fire safety and your planning application.

The Building Safety Act added fire safety checks at the planning stage. For almost every home project they change nothing, but it is worth knowing when they apply, who the regulator is, and what some London boroughs now ask for. Everything here is sourced, and dated 10 July 2026.

The short version

What changed at planning stage

Since 1 August 2021, the tallest residential buildings have faced an extra check when a planning application is made for them. It is called Planning Gateway One, and it sits alongside the wider Building Safety Act 2022 regime for high-rise buildings. GOV.UK: fire safety and high-rise residential buildings

Most home projects are never touched by it. The rules bite on tall buildings that contain several homes, not on a typical house. A single dwellinghouse, however large, is not caught.

Two different things can ask for fire safety information at planning stage, and it helps to keep them apart:

  • The national Planning Gateway One fire statement, which applies only to tall buildings with two or more homes. Rare, and professional territory.
  • A London Plan D12 fire safety statement, which some London boroughs ask for on ordinary applications, including householder ones. More common, and lighter.

The legal test

When a national fire statement is required

A fire statement is required for a full planning application that builds, alters, or develops the grounds of a relevant building. A building is a relevant building when both of these are true:

  • It is 18 metres or taller, or has 7 or more storeys, whichever it reaches first; and
  • It contains two or more homes, or is student or school residential accommodation.

The statement goes on the government's published form, and a missing one makes the application invalid, because it is a validation requirement. Article 9A, DMPO 2015 (legislation.gov.uk) GOV.UK: the published fire statement form

What is not caught: outline applications, applications to vary conditions (section 73), changes of use that stop a building being a relevant building, and changes of use of land or buildings in its grounds. There is no small-works exemption for a full application to a relevant building, so even a modest external alteration to a flat in one is caught.

Who assesses it

The Building Safety Regulator's role

When a fire statement is required, the council must consult a statutory consultee before deciding the application. Since 27 January 2026 that consultee is the Building Safety Regulator, a standalone body sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It replaced the Health and Safety Executive. Schedule 4, DMPO 2015 (consultee changed 27 Jan 2026) SI 2026/20 (establishes the standalone regulator)

Watch for out-of-date guidance. Some official pages, including GOV.UK's own Planning Gateway One guidance (last updated August 2021), still name the Health and Safety Executive as the consultee. Treat those references as superseded. Planning Portal's pages carry the January 2026 change. Planning Portal: Planning Gateway One

The regulator advises the council; it does not grant or refuse planning permission, and no one can promise you what it will say. Separately, and after planning, works to a higher-risk building need building control approval from the Building Safety Regulator, even where no planning permission was required at all. GOV.UK: building control approval for higher-risk buildings

London

What some London boroughs ask on ordinary applications

Separate from the national rule, London Plan policy D12 asks all development in London to consider fire safety, and each borough decides how through its local validation list. Greater London Authority: fire safety guidance

Some boroughs require a fire safety statement, a Fire Safety Strategy, Planning Fire Safety Strategy, or Reasonable Exception Statement, even on an ordinary householder application. We have verified at least seven against their own current validation list or checklist: Southwark, Croydon, Sutton, Richmond upon Thames, Hounslow, Kingston upon Thames and Merton. We check each borough against its own current list, never a trade list: those turn out to be wrong in both directions, naming boroughs that do not require it and missing ones that do.

For a single home this is usually light. A Reasonable Exception Statement on the GLA template is normally enough where the works do not add homes, alter external materials, add a lift, or change communal areas, and you or a competent person can complete it. Trade drafting services prepare these fire safety statements from around £300 if you would rather not. Example trade drafting service (from £300)

The council's list is the source of truth. Local validation lists change. Always confirm the current requirement on your borough's own published list before you submit. ClearPath curates these boroughs' fire safety requirements from the councils' own validation lists, each with the date it was checked.

A key distinction

Flats and houses are treated differently

Houses have permitted development rights for many common projects. Flats and maisonettes do not, so external works to a flat usually need a full planning application even when the same work on a house would not. Planning Portal: flats and maisonettes

A house

  • Often has permitted development rights for extensions and alterations.
  • A single dwellinghouse is never a relevant building. The one rare exception: works to a house standing in the grounds of a high-rise block can still need a fire statement.

A flat or maisonette

  • No householder permitted development rights, so external works generally need a full application.
  • If the block is 18 metres or taller, or has 7 or more storeys, with two or more homes, a fire statement and Building Safety Regulator consultation apply, even to modest works.

A lawful development certificate does not get around this. Flats have no permitted development to certify for external works, and a certificate never removes the need for Building Safety Regulator building control approval on a higher-risk building.

What ClearPath does and does not do here

ClearPath prepares England householder planning applications and lawful development certificates. Planning applications outside those routes are directed to professional help. Separately, ClearPath supports preparation for building control approval for small works to existing higher-risk buildings. See the higher-risk building control guide for the scope of that route.

  • It does not assess the technical adequacy of a fire statement.
  • It does not give fire safety or fire engineering advice.
  • It does not prepare Planning Gateway One applications, new higher-risk building applications, or Gateway 3 completion applications.
  • It does not predict what a consultee or council will decide.

This page is signposting, not advice. For a relevant building or a flat in one, speak to an architect or planning consultant experienced with these buildings, and a fire engineer for the fire statement itself.

Sources

Where this comes from

Every official page below was checked live on 10 July 2026. The GOV.UK Planning Gateway One guidance still names the Health and Safety Executive; the consultee is now the Building Safety Regulator.

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