What a Closed Government Consultation Means for Future Residential Buildings
While most of this site covers duties that apply to buildings and residents right now, it’s worth understanding what’s coming for new-build residential design. In 2026, the Building Safety Regulator, working with the Health and Safety Executive and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, ran a major consultation on updating Approved Document B, the statutory guidance that supports Part B (fire safety) of the Building Regulations. One proposal stands out for anyone interested in PEEPs and evacuation planning: mandatory evacuation lifts in new residential buildings above 18 metres.
What the Consultation Covered
The consultation, titled “Review of Approved Document B: Fire Safety,” ran for a defined period during 2026 and closed on 1 July 2026. It covered several areas beyond evacuation, including combustible materials in external walls, guidance for existing buildings, terminology for specialised housing, and fire safety for roofs and photovoltaic installations. For our purposes, the most significant section was titled “Means of Escape for Disabled People: new provision for evacuation lifts in tall residential buildings.”
The Proposal: Evacuation Lifts as Standard Design Guidance
Historically, Approved Document B has relied on a stay-put strategy for tall residential buildings, backed by intervention from the Fire and Rescue Service where evacuation assistance is needed, rather than specifying evacuation lifts as part of the building’s own design. The 2026 consultation proposed changing that. The Building Safety Regulator’s stated position is that evacuation lifts represent a relatively recent technological development that can allow people who cannot use stairs to evacuate independently, rather than relying on being rescued.
The core proposal is that Approved Document B should call for a minimum of two staircases and two evacuation lifts in all new residential buildings above 18 metres. This builds directly on an earlier ADB amendment, already confirmed and taking effect from 30 September 2026, which requires a second common staircase in residential buildings of 18 metres or more. The evacuation lift proposal is the natural next step in the same direction.
The consultation also sought views on where exactly the height threshold should sit, with options ranging from 11 metres, to 18 metres, to 18 metres with mechanical ventilation requirements kicking in above 30 metres. Where a threshold ultimately lands matters significantly for how many buildings this ends up affecting.
Why This Matters for Disabled Residents
The consultation explicitly frames the proposal around inclusive design and the Equality Act 2010, noting that introducing evacuation lifts would have a positive impact on protected groups characterised under the Act, including age, disability, and pregnancy and maternity. In practice, an evacuation lift changes the evacuation strategy available to a resident who cannot use stairs, from waiting in a refuge for staff or fire crews to arrive, to an active means of self-evacuation designed into the building from the outset.
Important Distinction: This Is Design Guidance, Not an Operational Duty
It’s worth being clear about what this proposal actually is, and isn’t. Approved Document B provides guidance for how new buildings should be designed to meet the Building Regulations; it doesn’t retrofit existing buildings or create an operational duty on the people managing them day to day. This is fundamentally different from the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025, which apply now to identifying and planning for residents in buildings that already exist, regardless of when they were built.
If the evacuation lift proposal proceeds broadly as consulted on, it will shape how new buildings are designed from the point it takes effect, complementing rather than replacing the existing duty to create Residential PEEPs. A new building with a properly designed evacuation lift may ultimately be simpler to write PEEPs for, since an additional, independent means of evacuation exists by design, but the duty to identify relevant residents and create individual plans remains regardless.
Timeline and Cost
The consultation’s own impact assessment set out a policy implementation period running from 2027 to 2036, with the cost of the evacuation lift provisions estimated at an uplift of between 0.1% and 0.2% of total build cost. As with the September 2026 second-staircase amendment, any final rule is likely to include transitional arrangements for buildings already at an advanced design or construction stage.
Sector Response
Housing sector bodies broadly supported the direction of the proposal during the consultation period. The National Housing Federation, for example, indicated support for evacuation lifts in taller residential buildings, while highlighting the need for clear definitions, adequate funding, and a flexible, risk-based approach that reflects how residents actually live in and use their buildings, rather than a blanket rule applied uniformly regardless of context.
What Happens Next
With the consultation now closed, the next step is a government response setting out which proposals will be taken forward and in what form. We’ll update this page once that response is published, and again as any confirmed amendment to Approved Document B moves toward a commencement date.
Further Reading
For the operational duties that already apply to existing residential buildings, see our Residential PEEPs compliance guide and PEEPs Legal Framework pages.
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