18 metres. 7 storeys. New legal duties. Does your building qualify?

What are RPEEPs and where did they come from?

RPEEPs — Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans — are the result of the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025.

They came into force on the 6th April 2026.

The regulations were introduced following recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, which identified something deeply uncomfortable — residents with disabilities and impairments were often left with no agreed evacuation plan whatsoever. In some cases, no one had even asked.

This legislation is the government’s response to that. It’s long overdue.

Does this apply to your building?

The regulations apply to residential buildings in England that meet either of these criteria:

▸ 18 metres or 7 storeys or above ground level, or
▸ Over 11 metres in height where a simultaneous evacuation strategy is in place

If you are the Responsible Person for a qualifying building — whether you’re a building owner, landlord, managing agent or facilities lead — these duties now sit with you. They are not optional.

What the law actually requires you to do

This isn’t just about writing a plan and filing it away. The duties are active and ongoing:

▸ Use reasonable endeavours to identify residents who may not be able to evacuate without assistance — this includes physical, sensory, cognitive and health-related needs

▸ Offer each relevant resident a person-centred fire risk assessment (PCFRA) — individual to them, not a generic building assessment

▸ Put in place reasonable and proportionate mitigating measures to support their safety

▸ Agree an emergency evacuation statement in writing with the resident and provide them with a copy

▸ With explicit resident consent, share a small amount of essential information with your local Fire and Rescue Service — stored in a Secure Information Box (SIB) on site

▸ Prepare a building-wide emergency evacuation plan, share it with your local Fire and Rescue Authority, and review it every 12 months — or sooner if circumstances change

All of this must be reviewed at least annually, or whenever a resident’s condition changes.

Three things that often get missed

1. Resident participation is voluntary — but your duty to identify and engage isn’t.
   You cannot force a resident to take part. But you are legally required to make reasonable endeavours to find out who may need support and offer the process. Doing nothing is not a compliant position.
2. A generic evacuation plan is not an RPEEP.
   This is person-centred planning. It has to be developed with the individual resident, reflect their specific circumstances, and be agreed in writing. A one-size-fits-all document won’t meet the standard.
3. The building emergency evacuation plan is a separate requirement.
   Even if no residents require an individual RPEEP, you still need a building-wide emergency evacuation plan, shared with your local Fire and Rescue Authority. This catches a lot of people out.

Where EverSafe fits in

At EverSafe Training, evacuation planning is what we do — not as a document exercise, but as a practical, people-first process.

RPEEPs require you to think carefully about how every individual in your building gets out safely. That takes more than a form. It takes trained staff who understand evacuation procedures, know how to support vulnerable residents under pressure, and can respond effectively when a plan needs to flex in a real emergency.

If your building is in scope and you’re not sure where to start, that’s the conversation worth having now — not after an inspection.

Your starting point

The government has published full guidance for Responsible Persons. It includes templates, case studies and practical tools to support compliance.

Click here for the full GOV.UK guidance and factsheet:

Follow EverSafe Training for clear, practical updates on fire safety law as it develops. We cut through the jargon so you know exactly what’s changing, what it means for your building, and what good compliance actually looks like.

Are you a Responsible Person for a building in scope? Have you started the RPEEP process yet? Drop a comment below — genuinely happy to point people in the right direction.

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