What the second staircase rule would mean for high-rise blocks

By Carl Brown2023-02-06T06:00:00

Michael Gove announced plans just before Christmas for mandatory second staircases in towers over 30m. But what impact is this likely to have?

“If you had the choice, would you choose to live at the top of a 30m block with just one staircase?”

This question, posed by Suzannah Nichol, chief executive of Build UK to Building, cuts to the heart of the reasoning behind the government’s latest building safety announcement.

Nearly six years after the Grenfell fire, the public understandably lacks confidence in the industry’s ability to make tall buildings safe. New legislation has been designed to ensure that such a disaster never happens again, but is it enough? There is a prevailing view that people living in tower blocks will continue to feel unsafe unless multiple means of escape are provided in new developments.

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