Housing secretary Michael Gove has laid out a two-and-a-half-year transition period for the implementation of second staircases in new residential developments, in a bid to provide developers with clarity over their schemes.
Gove said developers would have 30 months to take on board new building regulation guidance, meaning high rise housing blocks with single staircases will still be allowed to come to the market for several years to come.
The government confirmed its intention to mandate second staircases in new residential developments in July for all new buildings above 18m in height instead of the 30m threshold consulted on, in a move that surprised the industry.
The 30-month grace period will start from the date the government formally publishes the new building regulations, with new building applications confirming to either the current regulations or the new guidance.
Any approved applications that do not follow the second staircases guidance will have 18 months for construction to get under way “in earnest”, failing which they will have to submit a new application following the new rules.
Consultations on the new measures have led a large numbers of developers to pause or rework schemes, with developments containing hundreds of thousands of homes “delayed or mothballed” so far.
Gove said the transition period would ensure projects that already had planning permission with a single staircase could continue without further delay.
The minister also acknowledged this would mean single-staircase buildings over 18m coming to markets for some years and said these would not need to add a second staircase at a later date.
“I expect lenders, managing agents, insurers and others to behave accordingly, and not to impose onerous additional requirements, hurdles or criteria on single-staircase buildings,” he said.
Rory Bennett, head of UK planning at Linklaters, said the announcement was “to be welcomed, particularly given the uncertainty and disruption that this has caused in bringing development schemes forward”.
He added: “Nevertheless, the devil is in the detail, and notably the government has not stated when it intends to update approved document B and publish the design details that the market will be required to align with in ensuring compliance with approved document B.
“The announcement will be little consolation for developers whose schemes are stuck in the planning application process and have either decided not to pre-emptively amend their schemes in the hope that they could obtain the necessary approvals in time, or have obtained them, but will be unable to satisfy the requirement ‘for construction to get under way in earnest’ in the proposed timescales.
“They will have to go back to the drawing board, facing the prospect of having to redesign their scheme at significant cost and delay at a time when construction costs remain high and the need to deliver schemes and pay down debt is more pressing than ever.”
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