Norfolk Fire & Rescue encourages talks with building owners before new evacuation regulations

Norfolk Fire & Rescue Service (NFRS) are helping owners of tall residential buildings, and the residents who live those buildings, to prepare for major upcoming changes in national evacuation regulations in the event of a fire. 

The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 will come into force on Monday 6 April, and aim to improve on fire safety and evacuation of residents living in tall buildings by introducing new plans that building owners are responsible for. 

Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (RPEEPs) are being introduced through the new legislation and will apply to: 

• All multi-occupied residential buildings that are 18 metres or 7 storeys or higher. 
• Multi-occupied residential buildings that are over 11 metres and have a simultaneous evacuation strategy (i.e. a fire safety procedure where all occupants leave a building immediately upon activation of the fire alarm) in place. 

Group Manager Rob Curtis, Head of Protection at Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service said: "These changes are an important step towards making sure everyone feels safe in their own home, especially those who might need extra support in an emergency. They give much clearer expectations for building owners and managers, and we welcome that." 

What is changing? 

The new regulations will place new legal duties on 'Responsible Persons' - usually building owners, landlords or managers. Under the regulations, they will be required to identify residents who may have difficulty evacuating without assistance because of an impairment, offer them a person-centred fire risk assessment, and - where the resident wishes - agree an emergency evacuation statement. They must also develop and maintain a building wide emergency evacuation plan. 

With the resident's explicit consent, building owners then share a small amount of essential information with the fire and rescue service, including their flat number, floor number and a basic indication of the assistance they may need. No medical or personal information will be shared. 

Participation in the RPEEP process is voluntary for residents, and they can withdraw consent at any time. Conducting assessments, creating evacuation statements and deciding on mitigation measures remain the responsibility of building owners and managers, and not fire and rescue services. 

What should residents and building owners do? 

Group Manager Curtis said: "If you currently live in a tall building in Norfolk and think you may benefit from the new arrangements, we would advise you to speak to your landlord, building owner or managing agent to help you put a plan in place.  

"If you are the owner, landlord or manager of a building in Norfolk, then you should already have been making arrangements to comply with this new regulation.  

"We want owners to have all the tools they need to make their residents as safe as possible. We have a great deal of expertise in building safety and evacuations and we're here to guide and support you as far as we possibly can. 

"We're ready to receive the information you share with us, with residents' consent, and to use it to help us respond as effectively as possible if a fire does occur. We can then use that information to support our crews on the ground and continue to work with our partners to keep our communities safe. We want you to share some of this electronically via our website and some will need to be kept on site accessible for our crews should we attend an incident at your premises" 

For more information on the new regulations and RPEEPs, as well as what information to share with us and how please visit the Norfolk Fire and Rescue website.