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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the statement in Building Safety Fund Annex A - Technical: Measuring the height of your building that the measurement should be taken from the lowest ground level, how his Department defines that level in relation to (a) lower ground floors and (b) basement flats which are partly but not fully underground and the floor above is the first floor; and whether the measurement of height should start at (I) the lowest part of street level, (b) the lower ground floor, (c) floor level, (d) the first floor level or (e) another level.

The height of a building for the purpose of the Building Safety Fund, as set out in the Building Safety Fund: Annex A - Technical Information, should be measured in accordance with Diagram D6 of Approved Document B (Fire Safety) to the Building Regulations, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-approved-document-b.

This specifies that the height should be measured from the upper floor surface of the top floor to ground level on the lowest side of building. Diagram D6 clearly demonstrates that this measurement is taken externally. Therefore items such as lower ground floors and basement flats which are understood to be internal features of a building are generally not considered.