Fire strategy plans for London lofts, conversions and flats
Building control will not pass a loft, a flat conversion or an HMO until it can see how people get out, how they are warned and how fire is held back. A fire strategy plan puts all three on one drawing, set against Approved Document B. We prepare it for a fixed £445, and bring in a fire engineer where the building is complex.
Fixed fee from £445 · all prices
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What a fire strategy is, for a house or flat
On a large building a fire strategy is a specialist report by a fire engineer. On a London house or flat it is simpler and more practical: a drawing showing how someone in the loft bedroom gets out, what stops smoke reaching the stair and how everybody is woken. Building regulations requirement B1 expects exactly that, and Approved Document B is the official guidance on how to meet it.
The purpose of the plan is to answer building control's first question before it is asked. Where the guidance is followed, an officer can check the drawing against the document line by line and pass it. Where a layout cannot follow it, the plan sets out the alternative and why it is safe.
Fire Strategy Plans
from £445
Every price is the full fixed fee you pay. No VAT is charged. Council application fees are paid to the council separately.
What you get
- A plan of every floor showing the escape route from each room to a place of safety
- Fire-resisting walls, doors and floors marked and specified
- Positions of smoke and heat alarms, with the standard they are designed to
- Escape windows checked against the minimum opening sizes
- A short written strategy that building control can read against the drawings
- A note when the building needs a fire engineer, with the engineer coordinated by us
- Survey the layout
Stairs, doors, windows and room uses as they are now, because escape routes follow what is built.
- Find the route out
From every habitable room to the final exit, and where a protected stair or alternative route is needed.
- Separate and warn
Fire-resisting construction, doors and the alarm system drawn and specified.
- Check the standards
Each element is checked against Approved Document B and the opening sizes it sets.
- Issue to building control
The plan and strategy go with the building regulations application and become part of the approved set.
Lofts: the rule that bites at 4.5 metres
A loft conversion adds a storey above the existing escape route, and the guidance has a threshold for it. Approved Document B volume 1 says that where a new storey is created by conversion above 4.5 metres, the full extent of the escape route should be addressed, with fire resisting doors (minimum E 20) and partitions (minimum REI 30) provided, upgrading existing doors where necessary.
In an open-plan ground floor, new partitions may be needed to enclose the route. The guidance also allows an alternative, where sprinklers are fitted to the open-plan areas and the ground storey is separated from the upper storeys. We draw both options where the layout suggests them, so you can compare the cost and the loss of space before choosing.
Under the Building Safety Act regime, higher-risk buildings are those with at least two residential units that are at least 18 metres in height or have at least 7 storeys.
Escape windows and alarms
Where a window is the way out, the guidance sets minimum sizes. An emergency escape window should have an unobstructed openable area of at least 0.33 square metres, at least 450 millimetres high and 450 millimetres wide, with the bottom of the openable area no more than 1100 millimetres above the floor. We check every window on the plan against those figures, and flag a conservation-area sash or a roof light that is too small before it is ordered.
For warning, the government's answers to common questions on Approved Document B say that for the purposes of Part B a Grade D2 Category LD3 smoke alarm system is considered adequate for new dwellinghouses as a minimum, although a better standard can be specified. We mark the alarm positions and the standard on the drawing so the electrician fits what the officer will check.
Flats, HMOs and conversions
A flat in a larger building is a different problem, because the escape route is shared. The guidance for flats assumes any fire is likely to start in a flat and that occupants of other flats can stay put because of the compartment walls and floors. That only holds if the separation actually exists, which in an older conversion may not be the case, so the survey checks it.
For a house split into flats or let as an HMO, our flat conversion drawings and HMO conversion drawings are drawn with the fire strategy built in, so the layout and the escape route are designed together and not corrected afterwards.
When a fire statement or a fire engineer is needed
Two thresholds take a project out of the ordinary. Under article 9A of the planning procedure order, a planning application for a building of 18 metres or more in height, or with 7 or more storeys, that contains two or more dwellings must be accompanied by a fire statement on the Secretary of State's form. Under the Building Safety Act regime, higher-risk buildings are those with at least two residential units that are at least 18 metres in height or have at least 7 storeys.
Neither applies to a house or a typical low-rise block, but they mark where the work changes character. For a complex building, a bespoke design or an engineered fire strategy, the plans are prepared by a specialist fire engineer whom we coordinate. We do not claim to do that work in house, and we tell you early when your building needs it.
Fee and what happens after
Our fixed fee is £445, the total you pay, with no VAT charged. It covers the strategy plans and the written note for a house, loft, conversion or HMO of ordinary size. A fire engineer's report on a complex building is quoted separately before it is commissioned.
The plan feeds directly into the building regulations drawings that building control approves, and into the loft or conversion drawings if we are drawing those. Send us the address and what you are building, and we will say whether the standard plan is enough.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 4.5 metres | Approved Document B Volume 1 (2019 edition, 2026 online version) para 2.21: (source wording: "Where a new storey is added through conversion to create a storey above 4.5m") | assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |
| minimum REI 30 | Approved Document B Volume 1 para 2.21(b): (source wording: "Fire resisting doors (minimum E 20) and partitions (minimum REI 30) should be provided") | assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |
| 0.33 square metres | Approved Document B Volume 1 para 2.10: emergency escape windows (source wording: "A minimum area of 0.33m2" and "a minimum height of 450mm and a minimum width of 450mm", bottom of openable area "a maximum of 1100mm above the floor") | assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |
| Grade D2 Category LD3 | MHCLG, Approved Document B: Fire safety frequently asked questions: (source wording: "a Grade D2 Category LD3 system is considered to be adequate") | www.gov.uk |
| 18 metres or more in height | DMPO 2015 art 9A(2)-(4): a fire statement is required for a building (source wording: "the building is 18 metres or more in height; or the building contains 7 or more storeys") containing two or more dwellings or educational accommodation | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| at least two residential units | GOV.UK, Criteria for determining whether a new building is a higher-risk building: (source wording: "buildings with at least two residential units, care homes, and hospitals which are at least 18 metres in height or have at least 7 storeys") | www.gov.uk |