Fire chiefs call for modernisation of England’s building safety system

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has urged the government to overhaul the regulations and guidance that underpin England’s building safety regime, warning that current standards are outdated and fail to reflect modern construction practices or the needs of an ageing and diverse population.

In a new Building Regulations and Guidance Position Statement, published on 10 December 2025, the NFCC said much of the guidance supporting the Building Regulations 2010 is still based on post-war assumptions and has not kept pace with risks emerging from new materials, changes in building use or legislation such as the Equality Act 2010 and the Building Safety Act 2022.

The council highlighted long-standing weaknesses in the system, including ambiguities around compliance, a lack of regular review, and critical gaps in key areas such as access and facilities for fire and rescue services. It also warned that current guidance still does not require evacuation lifts — even in new residential buildings — despite the fact that many residents cannot safely use stairs in an emergency.

NFCC Chair Phil Garrigan said building safety guidance “is outdated, hasn’t kept pace with modern methods of construction, is too often misunderstood, and too slow to change.” He added: “Residents have the right to expect that, should they need to, they can evacuate, or be supported to evacuate, their homes safely, including those with mobility impairments or other vulnerabilities.”

Garrigan said that lessons from the Grenfell Tower fire must be embedded into design and planning from the outset. “Safety should never be compromised or considered secondary to the building design,” he said, calling for a system that is “modern, inclusive and accountable.”

The NFCC also warned that developers continue to exploit “non-worsening” provisions to avoid installing safety systems such as sprinklers and firefighting lifts during refurbishments, even when upgrades could be added at minimal cost. Fire and rescue services provided advice on more than 45,000 building regulation consultations last year, but that advice is not always acted upon, sometimes resulting in expensive enforcement measures such as prohibition notices or waking watches.

The council said that without decisive regulatory reform, the cultural changes recommended by Dame Judith Hackitt’s 2018 Independent Review will not be achieved.

Its statement sets out three recommendations to government:

• Regular updates to Approved Documents, including mandatory evacuation lifts in all new residential buildings, retrofitted sprinklers in single-stair high-rises, improved firefighter access, and reviews at least every five years.
• Strengthened competence across the system, including licensing principal contractors for higher-risk buildings and mandatory accreditation for fire risk assessors.
• Improved oversight and accountability, including making fire service advice statutory, protecting building control bodies from commercial pressures, and tightening rules to prevent the avoidance of safety upgrades.

The NFCC said these reforms are essential to ensure England’s buildings reflect how people live today — and to prevent future tragedies.

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