Fire Safety and the Future of Timber Construction in the UK

How can Europe uphold the highest standards of fire safety while unlocking the environmental, economic and social benefits of timber construction? A recent review of UK fire safety guidance has prompted debate and responses from across the built environment sector. 

Fire Safety: the 2026 review of Approved Document B

Approved Document B (Fire Safety) is the statutory guidance used to support compliance with the fire safety requirements of England’s Building Regulations. Although it is technical guidance, its practical influence reaches far beyond technical teams, because it shapes how the UK industry understands the ordinary route to approving and delivering a building.

In March 2026, the Building Safety Regulator published a consultation on a review of Approved Document B, which closed on 1 July. The proposals included the introduction of a new height threshold for all buildings using combustible elements of structure. Above this threshold, Approved Document B could not be relied upon to demonstrate that the building meets the fire safety requirements of the Building Regulations; instead, an alternative fire-engineered approach would be required. The suggested threshold is above 11m, for both residential and non-residential buildings. This represents a reduction of the current position, which restricts combustible materials in external wall systems only, for specified building types over 18m.

A Critical Policy Moment for Timber Construction

For buildings with biobased structures, principally timber, this represents an important policy moment. Placing these buildings outside standard guidance could affect confidence across design, approval, finance, insurance and procurement. Members of our UK Frontrunner Network have told us that the resulting uncertainty could influence project pipelines and future decisions to build in timber, as projects that sit outside the standard guidance may be perceived as riskier or harder to approve.

Any reduction in timber construction limits opportunities to lower embodied carbon and store carbon in buildings. There are also concerns around how the consultation may align with the Government’s Timber in Construction Roadmap, which recognises the role timber can play in reducing embodied carbon, accelerating housing delivery, strengthening domestic supply chains and contributing to economic growth.

We welcome the continued review of fire safety guidance. Fire safety and life safety sit at the centre of any credible building policy. The challenge is to take an evidence-led approach that both strengthens safety and provides clear, safe routes to delivering lower-carbon buildings. The consultation therefore represented an opportunity for industry and Government to work together to improve clarity for mid-rise buildings with timber structures.

Bringing the Sector Together

In April, we convened our UK Frontrunner community – made up of 36 pioneering organisations – for our annual UK Spring Forum at Walworth Town Hall in London, a building beautifully refurbished by our frontrunner, General Projects. Its hybrid design, with extensive use of exposed cross-laminated timber and glulam, makes it an excellent example of a sensitive, lower carbon refurb.

Together, we explored the practical implications of the consultation’s proposals and their wider potential impact. Life safety, and fire safety, are non-negotiable. This view was unanimous. But, participants highlighted the need to use all available evidence to question deeply held assumptions so that we can support safe and established ways to scale low carbon construction in England. To do this, we must learn to connect the use of timber and biobased materials not only to climate goals but also to housing delivery, health and wellbeing benefits and economic growth.

Together, we developed a short toolkit bringing relevant ideas, research, guidance and lines of enquiry into one place. The idea was not to create template wording or replace an organisation’s own response, but to help frontrunners draw on the network’s collective expertise whilst developing submissions that reflected their own experience and position. Frontrunners have subsequently used the toolkit to organise and develop their own responses.

The process demonstrated the network at its best: Built by Nature provided the space and coordination, while knowledge and technical expertise remained distributed and shared among all contributing organisations. The power of Built by Nature networks across Europe is not merely expertise, but in the people who come together, across disciplines, to drive real change.

See our UK Network

Built by Nature’s response

Drawing on these conversations, Built by Nature submitted a formal response to the consultation. Our position is that the Government should reconsider how the proposed threshold is framed and accompanied. Disapplying standard guidance for timber structures could leave significant uncertainty around how to deliver timber buildings, with wide-ranging impacts to climate, nature and people.

This is as an important opportunity to align fire safety guidance with wider ambitions for lower-carbon construction, housing delivery and green industrial growth. We would like to see partners from across industry, government and academia continue to work together to achieve consensus around appropriate evidence and signpost resulting guidance clearly.

We stand ready to work with regulators and industry partners to support that alignment through evidence, convening and practical guidance.

Download our Fire Safety Resources