National Requirements - Fire Statement

A Fire Statement must accompany an application for planning permission for development which involves:

  • the provision of one or more relevant buildings,
  • development of an existing relevant building
  • or development within the curtilage of a relevant building

Relevant buildings contain two or more dwellings or educational accommodation and meet the height condition of 18m or more in height, or 7 or more storeys.

"Dwellings” includes flats, and “educational accommodation” means residential accommodation for the use of students boarding at a boarding school or in later stages of education (for definitions see article 9A(9) of the Town and Country Planning Development Management (England) Procedure Order 2015 as amended by Article 4 of the 2021 Order.

Planning applications will be exempt from the requirement to submit a Fire Statement where:

  • the application is for a material change in use of a relevant building and the material change of use would result in the building no longer being a relevant building
  • the application is for a material change in use of land or buildings within the curtilage of a relevant building and the material change of use would not result in the provision of one or more relevant buildings
  • the application is for outline planning permission

Fire Statements must be submitted on a Fire Statement Form (Word document) published by the Secretary of State. It should contain:

  • the principles, concepts and approach relating to fire safety that have been applied to each building in the development
  • the site layout
  • emergency vehicle access and water supplies for firefighting purposes
  • what, if any, consultation has been undertaken on issues relating to the fire safety of the development; and what account has been taken of this
  • how any policies relating to fire safety in relevant local development documents have been taken into account

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