From 30 September 2026, further amendments to Approved Document B will take effect in England, bringing changes to fire safety guidance around means of escape in residential buildings.
For Principal Accountable Persons (PAPs), housing associations, property managers and developers, understanding what is changing and where the transitional arrangements apply will be important.
What’s Changing:
The 2026 amendments focus on two key areas.
More than one common staircase
Approved Document B introduces a new recommendation for blocks of flats with a storey 18 metres or more in height to be served by more than one common stair.
The amended guidance also makes clear that interlocking stairs, sometimes referred to as scissor or stacked stairs, are considered a single escape route and do not constitute an alternative means of escape.
Evacuation lifts
The amendments introduce building design provisions to support the use of evacuation lifts in blocks of flats.
Where an evacuation lift is provided, it should be located within an evacuation shaft containing a protected stairway, evacuation lift and evacuation lift lobby. The lobby should provide a refuge area for people waiting for the lift and have direct access to the protected stairway.
Importantly, the amendments do not introduce a blanket requirement for evacuation lifts in every affected building. Instead, they set out how buildings should be designed where evacuation lifts are provided.
What do the Changes Mean in Practice?
The amendments are particularly relevant to new residential development and building work where means of escape need to be considered as part of the overall fire safety strategy.
There are also transitional arrangements to be aware of. Where a building notice, initial notice or building control approval application with full plans was submitted before 30 September 2026, the previous version of Approved Document B can continue to apply where the relevant building work has started and is sufficiently progressed before that date, or is started and sufficiently progressed within the following 18 months.
Understanding which version of the guidance applies to a particular project will therefore be an important part of planning and compliance.
Keeping Building Safety Under Review
Approved Document B is just one part of an increasingly complex building safety landscape. For those responsible for residential buildings, keeping up with regulatory changes is essential to maintaining a clear understanding of building safety risks and responsibilities.
At Innovus, our Building Safety and Compliance team supports property owners, PAPs and property professionals with specialist advice across Building Safety Cases, Building Registration, remediation and fire safety inspections.
As requirements continue to evolve, having the right information, expertise and processes in place can help ensure building safety is managed proactively, not simply addressed when regulations change.
