Post-Grenfell, second staircase for London buildings taller than 30 metres now mandatory, says Sadiq Khan

All new London buildings taller than 30 metres will be required to have a second staircase, Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced.

All planning applications will need to adhere to the building safety measure, which comes into force with immediate effect, before going to the GLA for sign off.

The requirement for a second staircase in high-rise buildings was brought into focus by the Grenfell Tower fire.

The 67 metres tall building only had one staircase in line with building regulations, but it meant search and rescue operations by the fire brigade were harder to conduct and it was harder for residents to escape the building.

The Department for Levelling Up aims to roll-out the measure to the whole of England and Wales and has told developers to start preparing for its introduction.

Some developers are already incorporating the measure, such as Ballymore which last year redesigned a 52-storey building in London’s Docklands to include a second staircase following campaigning from the London Fire Brigade and action groups.

The second staircase requirement is expected to cost the construction industry £1.6bn over the next 10 years.

Mary-Anne Bowring of residential property group Ringley Group said that without mitigating initiatives, the viability of many schemes in the build process will be questioned.

“Whilst the change might well be the long-term goal, it’s the fragility of where we are today that is the problem”, she said. 

Bowring added that a second staircase means developers will have to lose a number of units as a higher percentage of the building becomes circulation space, which could hamper the viability of affordable housing projects. 

The move has been welcomed by campaigners as a first step towards tighter building safety regulations. Yet Giles Grover, co-lead of End Our Cladding Scandal campaign, said he’s still worried developers will “repeat their tricks by seeking to develop buildings centimetres below that height to evade important safety requirements”. The architect’s body and the National Fire Chief Council had also previously suggested a second staircase should be required respectively in buildings higher than 11 and 18 metres.