The Building Safety Regulator has reported that the new, more stringent regime for higher-risk buildings is already affecting planning applications.
Planning Gateway One (PGO)
Planning Gateway One (PGO) was the first step in changing the regulatory framework for building safety in England, following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
In making the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) a statutory consultee for planning applications for high-rise residential buildings, it aims to ensure that planning applicants consider fire safety issues at the earliest possible stage and that thinking on fire safety is fully integrated into development schemes.
consultation requests
As well as new planning applications involving high-rise residential buildings, around 30% included resubmissions
It has been just over a year since the implementation of PGO, during which time HSE received just over 1,300 consultation requests from local planning authorities for developments that include a relevant building.
As well as new planning applications involving high-rise residential buildings, around 30% of these cases included resubmissions following HSE’s advice to planning authorities.
A further 30% were considered to be out of the scope of the new regime, or the case related to an application that pre-dated the start of PGO.
fire safety concerns
HSE raised fire safety concerns in over half of the cases, ranging from issues that could be easily rectified with straightforward modifications to building layout and access, to the need for significant changes including additional firefighting shafts, the location of fire mains, fire appliance accessibility, escape route protection, and preventing fire spread to other buildings.
HSE worked with local planning authorities to ensure that its concerns were addressed and rectified before consent, though in a small number of cases, it advised the local authority against granting planning permission.
Positive influence
Reviewing PGO’s first year of operation, Peter Baker, Chief Inspector of Buildings, said, “I’m delighted to see that there are early signs that PGO is driving a change in the behavior of developers and designers and that HSE has been able to have a positive influence on the fire safety of higher-risk buildings early in the design process."
Peter Baker adds, “There is more to do to raise the industry’s awareness of PGO and the content of fire statements, and we will be sharing the learning from the first year of PGO with developers and local planning authorities to improve fire safety outcomes.”