Regulatory update

Residential PEEPs: what changed in April 2026?

The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 came into force on 6 April 2026. They introduce a process for relevant residents who may have difficulty evacuating without assistance, alongside a building emergency evacuation plan. These are duties for the responsible person, usually the building owner or manager, in specified residential buildings. They are separate from FireX's fire-door and passive-fire services.

Which buildings are in scope?

In England, the regulations apply to buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises that are at least 18 metres high or have at least seven storeys. They also apply to such buildings over 11 metres high where a simultaneous evacuation strategy is in place. Building height alone is therefore not the full test for every building; the responsible person should check the official guidance and the building's evacuation strategy.

Confirm building height and storey count
Check the current evacuation strategy
Identify the responsible person for the common parts

What must the responsible person arrange?

Government guidance describes reasonable endeavours to identify relevant residents, a person-centred fire risk assessment with those who engage, consideration of appropriate measures and an emergency evacuation statement where agreed. There are also review and information-sharing requirements, with consent playing an important role. The responsible person must prepare a building emergency evacuation plan for the building.

Use the government's responsible-person guidance
Establish a resident engagement and review process
Handle personal information and consent appropriately

How does this relate to passive fire protection?

The new evacuation-planning duties do not turn a fire-door contractor into the author of a resident's evacuation plan. Fire doors, compartmentation and fire stopping still need their own suitable inspection, maintenance and defect close-out arrangements. Clear asset references, survey findings and completion records help building teams understand the condition of these measures when managing wider fire-safety actions.

Keep fire-door and compartmentation records current
Escalate defects through the existing responsible-person process
Link remedial completion evidence to the correct asset

A sensible next step for building teams

First establish whether each building is in scope and use the official guidance to plan the responsible-person duties. Separately, check that outstanding fire-door and compartmentation actions have owners, priorities and traceable completion records. FireX can assist with the latter passive-fire work where it falls within an agreed competent scope; it does not provide Residential PEEPs or person-centred fire risk assessments.

Review the official factsheet and guidance
Confirm who leads resident engagement and evacuation planning
Maintain a separate schedule for physical fire-safety defects

Next steps

Relevant services and guidance

Continue with the FireX service, sector or location information most relevant to your building.

Original sources and further reading

General guidance

This article is general information, not legal, fire-engineering or product-design advice. Follow the building fire strategy, current official guidance, tested system evidence and competent professional advice.

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