Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing the definition of high-rise to 11 metres to improve the regulation of (a) buildings used as student accommodation and (b) other similar buildings.

There is no industry wide accepted definition for the height threshold above which buildings are classified as high rise in the United Kingdon, however the guidance to the buildings regulations (Approved Documents) uses triggers such as height for additional provisions.

As part of the technical review of the fire safety guidance to the building regulations (Approved Document B) we have commissioned the BRE to undertake some research on the trigger thresholds used in this document. This work is scheduled to be completed by the latter part of 2021.