The Government's changes to the planning regime in England, intended to incorporate the first stage of the new Gateway regime proposed under the Building Safety Bill (as reviewed in our previous post here) came in to operation on 1 August 2021 and now apply to application for the development of any new higher-risk building, the redevelopment of any existing higher-risk building or any development within the curtilage of a higher risk building.

Under the new planning regime any detailed application will be required to include a fire safety statement, in the prescribed format and signed by a competent person, setting out the fire safety strategy for the development and the Health and Safety Executive (as the Building Safety Regulator) will need to be consulted before any planning permission is granted. 

For the purposes of the new regime, a higher risk building is any building which is 18 metres or more in height and which contains two or more dwellings or contains educational accommodation.

A complete copy of the legislation amending the Town and Country Planning Order 2015 is available here.