Straight answers to the questions clients ask most — from fire risk assessments and EWS1 to Building Safety Regulator gateways. If yours isn't here, just ask.
A fire risk assessment is a structured review of a building's fire hazards, the people at risk, and the measures in place to protect them. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, virtually every non-domestic building in England and Wales — including the communal areas of blocks of flats — must have a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, kept under regular review by the Responsible Person.
This relates to residential fire risk assessments only. The four types describe how far the assessment goes:
We advise which type is genuinely proportionate for your building rather than defaulting to the most expensive.
An EWS1 is not a legal requirement. The form emerged after Grenfell, when mortgage lenders and insurers wanted a simple way to understand the fire risk of a building's external walls — and it is still requested by some as a way of quantifying that risk when flats are sold, remortgaged or insured. If you're asked for one, we can carry out the underlying appraisal and complete the form — but we'll always start by advising the best course of action for your specific circumstances, which may not require an EWS1 at all.
A FRAEW — a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls, carried out to the PAS 9980 methodology — is the detailed technical assessment of how a building's external walls would behave in a fire, concluding with a risk rating and, where needed, recommendations. The EWS1 is essentially the one-page summary of that conclusion for lenders. In most cases the FRAEW is the substantive piece of work; the EWS1 itself is a short summary form recording the outcome — not a significant extra exercise.
For higher-risk buildings (generally 18 m / 7 storeys and above with residential units), the Building Safety Act 2022 introduced regulatory gateways. Gateway 2 is approval of the full design before construction can start; Gateway 3 is approval at completion, before the building can be registered and occupied. Both demand well-organised, consistent fire safety information — which is where we support design teams, contractors and clients.
The law requires review "regularly" and after any material change — a fire, building alterations, or changes in occupancy. In practice, most assessors recommend an annual review and a full reassessment every one to three years depending on the building's risk profile. We agree a proportionate review cycle with each client and track remedial actions through to close-out.
Yes. We develop fire strategies across all RIBA stages for new build, and retrospective fire strategies for existing buildings, alongside fire statements for Planning Gateway One and London Plan Policy D12(A). Where prescriptive guidance is too restrictive, we develop performance-based engineered solutions.
Yes — but not off-the-shelf courses. We build bespoke training around your building, your team and your real risks, and deliver it where your people are. Typical packages include:
Yes. For complex, high-consequence sites — event sites, heritage buildings, salvage operations and the like — we plan and coordinate live and tabletop exercises in partnership with the local UK fire and rescue service, so everyone understands their role before it matters.
We're based in London and work UK-wide. From single buildings in the capital to national portfolios spanning the UK, one consultancy covers the lot.
Tell us about your building — we'll give you a straight, proportionate answer, scoped to what genuinely needs doing.