The 30 September 2026 fire safety changes: what's coming and who it affects

From 30 September 2026, important amendments to Approved Document B — the statutory guidance that supports the fire safety requirements of the Building Regulations in England — come into force. If you commission, design or manage buildings, it is worth understanding what is changing and why.

The headline change is the second staircase. New residential buildings above 18 metres in England will need a second, protected staircase: an independent route that gives occupants a separate way out and gives firefighters a protected place to work. It is a direct response to lessons learned about how tall buildings behave in a serious fire.

Alongside it, the amendments make fire-resisting lobbies mandatory between every flat entrance door and the common staircase in new multi-flat residential buildings. The lobby acts as a smoke-tight buffer, so a fire in one flat is far less likely to fill the escape stair with smoke and render it unusable for everyone else.

The changes also update the provisions for fire doorsets and introduce the concept of evacuation shafts to support evacuation lifts where they are provided. Running through all of it is a clear theme: the doorset — the door, frame, seals and hardware assessed and certified as a single unit — is increasingly the expected standard, rather than a door and frame treated as separate parts.

There are transitional arrangements. The previous guidance can still apply where building control was notified before 30 September 2026 and the work has started and is sufficiently progressed within the permitted timeframes. So some projects already underway will continue under the old rules — but new schemes should plan around the new ones.

Who does this affect most directly? Because these are primarily requirements for new buildings and major works, developers, designers and building control teams are in the front line. But the direction of travel matters to everyone who holds a building. The rules are tightening, lobbies and doorsets are under fresh scrutiny, and for existing buildings the standing duty to keep fire doors in good working order — under the Fire Safety Order and the Building Safety Act — is unchanged while enforcement keeps rising.

If you are planning works in Cornwall or Devon, or simply want to be confident your existing doors meet today's standard, the sensible step is to take advice early rather than discover a problem at handover.

Talk to us about your project, or book a survey of your existing doors.