New fire safety regulations come into force today, April 6, introducing Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (RPEEPs) for multi-occupied residential buildings.
Building owners, landlords, and Responsible Persons must identify residents who need help evacuating, offer personalised fire risk assessments, and create individual evacuation statements alongside a building-wide plan
The changes aim to improve fire safety for vulnerable residents and encourage ongoing collaboration between Responsible Persons, residents, and fire services.
The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 introduce a new process called Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (RPEEPs).
These will apply to multi-occupied residential buildings in England that contain two or more domestic premises and are either 18 metres (or seven storeys) or higher, or over 11 metres in height where a simultaneous evacuation strategy is in place.
They also place new legal duties on Responsible Persons, usually building owners, landlords or managers.
Under the regulations, Responsible Persons will be required to take reasonable steps to identify residents who may have difficulty evacuating without assistance because of a physical or cognitive impairment.
They must offer those residents a personalised fire risk assessment and, where the resident wishes, agree an emergency evacuation statement. In addition, a building-wide emergency evacuation plan must be developed and maintained.
