Residential Evacuation Plans

What is a Residential Evacuation Plan?

A Residential Evacuation Plan is a formal document to assess how particular residents can safely evacuate a residential building in the event of a fire. The plan combines the building’s evacuation strategy with arrangements for a specific resident who may need assistance.

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, reinforced by the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025, certain residents are now legally required to be offered these evacuation plans.

Updated Legal Requirements for Residential Evacuation Plans in England (2026)

Residential evacuation plans move from best practice to a legal requirement on the 6th April 2026 following changes to fire safety legislation introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. These reforms aim to improve evacuation safety, particularly for residents who may be unable to self-evacuate without assistance.

The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025, made under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, place new duties on Responsible Persons to ensure appropriate evacuation arrangements are documented and maintained. These regulations will come into force in April 2026, giving building owners and managing agents a defined compliance deadline.

Which Residential Buildings Must Comply?

The regulations apply only to “specified residential buildings” in England.  The requirements apply to any of the following:

• Buildings over 18 metres tall.  Measured from the ground to highest floor level
• Buildings with 7 or more storeys.  Storeys below ground aren’t counted if any part of their ceiling is below the adjacent ground level.  Mezzanines count as a storey if they are above ground and take up at least 50% of the floor area
• Buildings over 11 metres tall and which have a simultaneous evacuation strategy

The above items apply even if some parts or entire floors are not residential.

Who Is Legally Responsible for Compliance?

Responsibility for compliance rests with the Responsible Person, as defined under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This is the individual or organisation with control over the fire safety arrangements for the building’s common parts.  This is typically the building owner, the freeholder, a managing agent or another party with control over the common parts of the building.  Check out our other page on who is a Responsible Person. 

Purpose of Residential Evacuation Plans

The purpose of a Residential Evacuation Plan is to quantify the risks to people who are not able to evacuate the building without assistance.  

Residential Evacuation Plans help to:

• Support Responsible Persons in meeting their fire safety duties
• Demonstrate compliance with current fire safety legislation
• Identify risks to people who might not be able to evacuate a building unaided
• Mitigate those risks by making adaptations or purchasing extra equipment
• Create an emergency evacuation statement and share with the resident
• Provide all relevant information to the local fire and rescue authority
• Update the buildings Fire Evacuation Plan

We regularly provide residential evacuation plan services in and around:

• Sheffield
• Manchester
• Birmingham
• Leeds
• Nottingham
• Barnsley
• Rotherham
• Doncaster
• Stockport

Our team frequently travels across the region and can support residential buildings of varying size and complexity. If your location is not listed above, call 01246 439210 to confirm service availability—our team will be happy to assist.

PEEPs relate to employees and specifically their employers responsibilities to ensure their safety.  They require the business to make sure that all employees can evacuate the building in a fire.  A lot of this relates to the Equality Act 2010 which forces employers to “make reasonable adjustments” to ensure that disabled people are not discriminated against.  Such as during an emergency evacuation of the building.

The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 were brought in primarily because of the huge loss of life at the Grenfell Tower Fire.  A lot of disabled residents were stuck in the tower because the lifts were faulty and they couldn’t get down the stairs.  But also the rules on what a landlord could or should do were limited.  Landlords aren’t allowed to question people about their disabilities before renting them a flat.  Nor is anyone generally allowed in the flat whilst it's being rented.  This new legislation clarifies that position by making the landlord (or other Responsible Person) offer one of these plans to all residents.