Government consults on the biggest Approved Document B revision since 2019

The Building Safety Regulator and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government opened a consultation on 25 March 2026 proposing changes to Approved Document B, the statutory guidance supporting Part B of the Building Regulations in England. It closed at 11:59pm on 1 July 2026.

What was proposed

The consultation covered a wider set of changes than the amendment cycle usually carries. The proposals included revised guidance on external walls and balconies, new thresholds on combustible structural elements, and a recommendation that residential buildings above 18 metres be provided with evacuation lifts.

Three further changes are worth noting because they affect how existing buildings are assessed rather than only how new ones are designed. The guidance for work to existing buildings would be consolidated rather than scattered; the term "sheltered housing" would be replaced by "specialised housing"; and roof guidance would be updated to address solar panel installation, which has become a routine retrofit on buildings whose fire strategy never anticipated it.

Structural fire resistance for open-sided car parks was also in scope.

Why it matters for assessment work

Approved Document B is not the standard against which an occupied building's ongoing management is judged — that remains the Fire Safety Order and the fire risk assessment beneath it. But it establishes what a building should have been given when it was built or altered, which is where the original expectation comes from when an assessment finds a protected route compromised.

The evacuation lift proposal is the one most likely to change conversations with clients. A recommendation in statutory guidance is not a duty, but it shifts what "reasonable" looks like when a building's evacuation strategy is challenged — particularly where residents cannot use stairs and a personal emergency evacuation plan is the only current mitigation.

What happens next

A consultation closing is not a change in the law, and nothing here takes effect on publication of the response. The government's response and any resulting amendment will be reported separately.