The government has been consulting on plans to make second staircases compulsory in new residential buildings over 30 metres high.
However, it has been told by an alliance of important and relevant organisations that the threshold should be 18 metres, not 30 metres.
They say: “The proposed threshold of 30 metres falls short of what we believe to be best practice. We recommend that new residential buildings of 18 metres and above are designed with two staircases. An 18 metre height threshold would better align height thresholds across the wider regulatory environment and better reflect the reality of a post-Grenfell world.
“While arguments exist for a range of thresholds, both higher and lower, an 18 metre threshold would bring the greatest harmonisation with the wider regulatory environment, and therefore the greatest simplicity and certainty for industry at this time.
“An 18 metre threshold would align with definitions in the Building Safety Act, as well as thresholds for certain provisions in the Fire Safety (England) Regulations, and the amendments to fire safety provisions within Approved Document B in relation to fire alert systems in blocks of flats with storeys over 18 metres.
“This would also help to synchronise standards across the United Kingdom by aligning to rules in Scotland, which has required two staircases in new residential buildings over 18 metres for four years.”
The letter was signed by representatives of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC). It was also signed by the chief executives of Disability Rights UK, Inclusion London and Housing LIN and by Georgie Hulme, co-founder of Claddag, the Leaseholder Disability Action Group.
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