Planning Gateway One and Article 9A of the DMPO
Article 9A requires a fire statement with applications for relevant buildings at 18 metres or seven storeys. What it must cover and how the HSE response shapes the decision.
If your scheme contains two or more dwellings and reaches 18 metres or seven storeys, the application will not be validated without a fire statement on the prescribed form. That requirement comes from Article 9A of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, inserted in 2021, and it brings the Health and Safety Executive into the planning process as a statutory consultee. Practitioners call the stage Planning Gateway One, and it is the first of the three gateways created around the Building Safety Act 2022.
The point of the gateway is timing. Fire safety used to be worked out after planning permission, at which stage the site layout, the core positions and the appliance access were already fixed by a consent nobody wanted to reopen. Gateway One moves the conversation to the stage where the drawings can still change.
Which buildings are caught
Article 9A applies to applications for planning permission for development involving a relevant building. In broad terms a relevant building contains two or more dwellings, or educational accommodation, and meets the height condition of 18 metres or more, or seven or more storeys.
Height is measured to the floor surface of the top storey, not to the top of a parapet or a lift overrun, and roof plant is excluded from the storey count. That measurement decides whether the regime applies at all, so put the calculation on a drawing and show your working. Schemes sitting at 17.6 metres draw questions, and a scheme that creeps over during design development after permission creates a problem that is awkward to unwind.
The planning definition is not identical to the higher-risk building definition used at Gateways Two and Three. Educational accommodation is within the planning trigger, while the building control regime reaches other building types. Do not assume that being outside one means being outside the other. Our explainer on the three gateways sets the sequence out.
What the fire statement has to address
The statement goes on the form published by the Secretary of State, and the headings follow the questions the Health and Safety Executive asks. In substance it covers the principles and approach to fire safety, the site layout, emergency vehicle access and the hardstanding that supports it, water supplies for firefighting, the means of escape strategy and how it drives core design, and the construction methods and products where they affect external fire spread.
Write it as a design document. The common failure is a statement that describes intentions in general terms without engaging the actual constraints of the site: the width of the access road, the turning circle at the head of a cul-de-sac, the distance from a hydrant to the dry riser inlet, the position of the firefighting shaft relative to the entrance. Those are planning matters because they are geometry, and geometry is fixed by the layout drawing.
A Fire Statement is one of the report types where a professional is legally required rather than recommended. Someone with fire engineering competence has to prepare it, and the form asks who that person is. A drafted structure is a starting point for that professional, not a substitute for them.
The Health and Safety Executive as consultee
The Executive was added to the list of statutory consultees for these applications, and the authority must consult it and take its response into account. The response is not a veto. It is expert advice that a reasonable authority will follow unless there is a good reason not to, and in practice a negative response is very hard to overcome.
Responses tend to fall into three shapes. A statement that the Executive is content. A response raising matters for the authority to secure, which usually turns into conditions. Or a response saying the statement is insufficient to allow an assessment, which is the one that costs time, because the clock restarts when a revised statement is submitted.
Give the Executive what it needs to answer first time: drawings that show the fire appliance access route with dimensions, the position of the firefighting shafts, hydrant locations and distances, and a short explanation of how the escape strategy works in the building as drawn.
How the response shapes conditions and the later gateways
Where matters are left for detail, expect conditions requiring a scheme of fire safety measures, hydrant provision, or details of external wall construction to be approved before work above a stated level. Those conditions matter commercially because they sit on the critical path.
Gateway Two follows at building control stage, where higher-risk buildings need approval from the Building Safety Regulator before construction begins, and Gateway Three is the completion certificate stage before occupation. A design that satisfied Gateway One does not automatically satisfy Gateway Two, since the test changes from whether fire safety has been considered in the layout to whether the detailed design complies. What Gateway One does is stop you arriving at Gateway Two with a layout that can never work.
For schemes where a full fire engineering strategy is needed, a Fire Safety Strategy to BS 9991 or BS 9999 is a separate document prepared by a fire engineer and goes well beyond what Article 9A requires at application stage.
Validation failures that recur
Five keep appearing:
- The statement is not on the published form. A bespoke report, however thorough, is not what the article requires.
- The height calculation is missing or measured to the wrong point, so the authority cannot confirm whether the regime applies.
- The author's fire safety competence is not stated, or the statement is signed by the architect with no fire input.
- The drawings and the statement contradict each other, usually on appliance access width or the position of a firefighting shaft.
- Water supply is asserted rather than evidenced, with no engagement with the water undertaker on flow rates.
A sixth is subtler. Applicants sometimes submit the statement for a scheme whose height is borderline while arguing in the covering letter that it is not required. Decide the point and be consistent, because an inconsistent position gives the validating officer no basis to register the application.
Where this sits in an application programme
Treat the fire statement as a six to eight week item rather than a document produced at the end. The fire engineer needs the layout, the core strategy and the access arrangements, and their comments usually change all three. Bring them in at the same point as the transport consultant, because appliance access and refuse vehicle tracking are the same drawing.
Then keep the statement current. Where a scheme is amended after permission by a section 73 application or a non-material amendment, ask whether the amendment touches anything in the statement, because the Executive's advice was given on the scheme as it stood. Amendments to core positions, external wall build-ups and access routes all warrant a fresh look.
Browse the 66 report types to see how the fire evidence sits alongside the rest of a major residential submission, and follow reform as it lands on the planning law timeline.
This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.
Frequently asked questions
Which buildings need a fire statement under Article 9A?
Applications for planning permission involving a relevant building, broadly one containing two or more dwellings or educational accommodation and meeting the height condition of 18 metres or more, or seven or more storeys. Height is measured to the floor surface of the top storey, with roof plant excluded from the storey count.
Does the fire statement have to be on a particular form?
Yes. Article 9A requires the statement to be on the form published by the Secretary of State. A bespoke fire report, however detailed, does not satisfy the requirement on its own and is a common reason for an application failing validation. Attach supporting material to the form rather than replacing it.
Can the Health and Safety Executive refuse permission?
No. The Executive is a statutory consultee for these applications, so its response is expert advice that the local planning authority must take into account rather than a veto. In practice a response saying the scheme is unacceptable is very difficult to overcome, and a response saying the statement is insufficient simply restarts the clock.
Is Gateway One the same as the higher-risk building regime?
No. Gateway One is a planning stage governed by Article 9A of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015, while Gateways Two and Three sit in building control under the Building Safety Act 2022 with their own definition of higher-risk buildings. The categories overlap without matching, so check each separately.
Who should prepare the fire statement?
Someone with fire engineering competence. The form asks who prepared the statement and what their fire safety experience is, and the Health and Safety Executive reads that as part of its assessment. A statement signed by the architect with no fire input is one of the recurring reasons an application is not validated.
Does a section 73 amendment need the fire statement revisited?
Often, yes. The consultee advice was given on the scheme as it stood, so an amendment that changes core positions, appliance access routes or external wall construction should be checked against the statement before it is submitted. Carrying an out of date statement through an amendment invites a fresh consultation and delay.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.