The Government is currently reviewing rules on high-rise blocks, but calls are growing for faster action to prevent what Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith and Shepherd’s Bush, the constituency in which URW’s tower would be located, describes as a “gold rush of tall buildings with inadequate fire-safety measures”.
Britain has some of the world’s most relaxed laws on escape stairs in high-rise buildings. Second stairs are required in buildings as low as two storeys in Canada and four in the US, while in Belgium, Poland and Norway, it’s 25.
Even within the UK, there is variation: in 2019, Scotland changed its guidance to require a second stair in buildings above 18 metres. In England and Wales, office buildings above 11m must have two escape stairs, yet apartment blocks of any height need just one, providing they are built to a “stay put” strategy.
Most of the UK’s high-rises are built to that principle, developed in the early 1960s, which means that the building has been designed purposefully to prevent fire spread. In the event of a blaze, residents should be able to remain in their flats as firefighters tackle it. But “stay put” has come under intense scrutiny since Grenfell, where people were told to stay in their flats even when the fire became out of control.
The Grenfell Inquiry’s first phase report in 2019 found there would have been more survivors if the London Fire Brigade revoked “stay put” sooner and ordered an evacuation. At the time, Inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick called for new national guidelines on the evacuation of high-rises, and for building owners to be legally required to draw up evacuation plans.
The London Fire Brigade has called for more research on the “stay put” strategy, but warned that abandoning it would present “considerable” challenges, as most existing buildings are not designed for mass evacuations with no common alarm systems and narrow staircases. In London, over 1,000 high-rise buildings have been forced to suspend “stay put” strategies due to fire safety defects found in the wake of Grenfell. In many cases, residents have had to pay for expensive 24-hour waking watch patrols or fire alarm installation to ensure they are safe.
And as the Cuba Street plans show, tall residential buildings are still being designed and built to the “stay put” principle.
Profit is, of course, the principal motive in the development of high-rise buildings. Architects first draw plans for a building’s core and layout to a developer’s brief and, in most cases, try to “optimise the plate” – or squeeze in as many flats as possible. A second staircase would eat into sellable space and is therefore usually “out of the question”, according to architect Robert Slinger, co-founder of design practice Kapok. “Developers will not consider this option at an early stage unless legally obliged to,” he adds.
The plans for Cuba Street, designed by architect Morris + Company with a fire strategy by engineers WSP, include a staircase, two evacuation lifts, a fire fighting lift and sprinklers – while its external walls have non-combustible cladding. The Fire Brigade, however, has criticised the scheme. It argues the design “does not provide suitable and convenient means of escape for all building users”. In particular, it questions the safety of the tower’s evacuation lifts, which it says do not include refuge facilities where disabled people or the elderly can wait for a lift to arrive.
