Which mixed use buildings need an Article 9A fire statement

Article 9A of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015 requires a fire statement with any application for planning permission for development involving a relevant building. A relevant building is one that contains two or more dwellings or educational accommodation and meets the height condition: 18 metres or more in height, or seven or more storeys. Everything difficult about screening a mixed use scheme comes from those two words, the building, because a podium with three towers on it may be one building or three, and the answer changes whether the duty applies at all.

Get the screening wrong in either direction and it costs you. Omit a required statement and the application is invalid and the Building Safety Regulator is never consulted. Supply one where none is needed and you have paid a fire engineer for a document nobody asked for.

The definition the duty turns on

Three elements have to be satisfied together.

The building contains two or more dwellings, or educational accommodation, which covers boarding accommodation for pupils and student accommodation. A building with no dwellings and no educational accommodation is outside the duty however tall it is, which is why a 25 storey office tower needs no Article 9A statement.

The height condition is met where the building is 18 metres or more in height, measured from ground level to the floor surface of the top storey, or where it has seven or more storeys, ignoring storeys below ground level. The two limbs are alternatives, so a seven storey building of modest floor to floor height is caught even where it falls short of 18 metres.

And the application is for planning permission for development involving that building. That includes a new building, and it includes works to an existing relevant building, which catches refurbishment and roof extensions that applicants often assume are outside the regime.

Record the measurement. A short note giving the top storey floor level, the ground level datum used and the storey count, attached to the application, saves a validation query and protects you if the point is raised later.

Podiums, decks and separated blocks

This is where judgement is needed, and where a written reasoning trail matters more than a conclusion.

Where residential blocks rise from a shared podium or basement, the question is whether the structures form one building or several. Separation by a compartment wall running the full height, with no interconnection between the blocks above podium level, points towards separate buildings. Shared circulation, a continuous deck slab with internal connections, a single core serving more than one block, or shared means of escape point the other way.

The consequence is stark. Three six storey blocks on a two storey podium, treated as one building, may reach both the height and the storey thresholds. Treated as three, none of them does. The Building Safety Regulator publishes guidance on the Gateway One process that addresses linked blocks, and it is worth taking a view on the correct reading early and setting it out in the covering letter rather than inviting the council to form its own.

Where the position is fairly arguable, the practical answer is usually to prepare the statement. A fire statement on a scheme that turns out to be exempt is a modest cost. A scheme determined without consulting a statutory consultee is exposed.

Buildings containing two or more dwellings

The dwellings do not have to be the tall part of the building.

A building of 18 metres containing ground floor retail and flats above is a relevant building. So is a building of 18 metres containing offices on the upper floors and two flats at first floor level, because the definition asks whether the building contains two or more dwellings and whether the building meets the height condition. The dwellings can sit anywhere in it.

That reading catches conversions. An office building being converted under a full planning application, with a roof extension taking it past seven storeys and flats inserted at lower levels, falls within the duty. A prior approval application under the permitted development regime is a different procedure, and the Article 9A duty attaches to applications for planning permission, so check the route you are using before concluding either way.

Hotels, hostels and boarding houses contain no dwellings, so they sit outside Article 9A even at height. They are caught by other parts of the building safety framework, including the restriction on combustible materials in external walls, which is a separate question with its own definition.

Where commercial floorspace changes the answer

Commercial content changes the answer in two situations.

It changes the height measurement where commercial storeys sit below the residential ones, because the height condition is measured to the top storey of the building rather than to the top residential storey. A two storey commercial base plus five residential storeys is a seven storey building.

And it changes the fire strategy the statement has to describe. Mixed use buildings raise questions a purely residential block does not: separation between uses, whether commercial servicing crosses a residential escape route, smoke control in a shared basement car park, firefighting access to a podium deck, and the management interface between a commercial operator and a residential managing agent. The statement is where those are addressed at a high level, and the detail follows in the Fire Safety Strategy at the later gateway.

What the statement must address

The statement is submitted on the form published for the purpose, and it covers the fire safety principles and standards applied to the scheme at a level appropriate to planning.

• Siting and layout, including separation distances and the space around the building.
• Access and facilities for the fire and rescue service, including appliance access routes and hardstanding.
• Water supplies for firefighting, including hydrant provision.
• Means of escape, including stair provision, evacuation strategy and any evacuation lift.
• Means of warning and detection at a strategic level.
• Construction methods and products at a strategic level, including external wall materials.
• Ongoing maintenance and management assumptions.

Keep it consistent with the drawings. Where the statement describes a second stair, the plans must show it, and where the plans show a single core serving two blocks, the statement cannot describe them as separated. Inconsistency is the commonest cause of a Gateway One query, and queries run on the regulator's timetable.

Who is competent to prepare it

A fire statement for a relevant building must be prepared by someone with the necessary fire engineering competence under the Building Safety Act 2022 framework and Article 9A. An architect, a planning consultant and a fire risk assessor are not interchangeable here, and the regulator's response will reflect the quality of the authorship. The position on who is competent to author a fire statement sets out what to look for.

Bring that person in before the core is fixed. The design decisions the statement describes, including stair numbers, lobby arrangements and firefighting shaft provision, are expensive to change after planning drawings are issued.

Consequences of getting the screening wrong

Under-screening produces a validation failure at best. At worst the application is determined without the statutory consultee being consulted, which leaves the permission open to challenge and the developer exposed at the next gateway.

Over-screening costs a fee and a fortnight. It also puts material on the file describing a fire strategy for a building that may be built differently, so keep the statement factual and avoid commitments you have not tested.

An illustrative example: a scheme with a single storey retail podium, a basement car park beneath it, and two residential blocks of six storeys above. The blocks share the basement and are separated above podium level by a compartment wall with no interconnection, but one refuse route runs beneath both. The applicant treats the scheme as a relevant building, submits a fire statement addressing the shared basement and the refuse route, and records the reasoning in the covering letter. Gateway One consultation raises questions about basement smoke control, which are answered by condition. No validation dispute arises.

PlanScope drafts a Fire Statement from your project details, structured to UK planning policy, flagging the facts it cannot verify. Because a licensed or competent fire engineering professional is legally required for this document, the draft is a starting point for that professional rather than a substitute for their judgement.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the current text of Article 9A and the regulator's guidance 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.