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NEW FIRE PRECAUTIONS REGIME from 1st October 2006
- B&Bs are closing or contemplating closure around the UK
Many thousands of small B&Bs and Guest Houses in England and Wales have NOT since 1971 (when the Fire Precautions Act came in) been required to have a Fire Certificate, having under 6 bed spaces and no rooms above the first floor or below the ground floor. We would estimate that a very significant proportion - possibly the majority - of the 20,000 or so UK B&Bs must come into this category.
The new fire regulations (the RRFSO, or "Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order") came into force on 1 October 2006.
This new regime effectively brings ALL B&Bs into the ambit of the new fire regulations, with the onus on every owner to assess his/her own risk and responsibility, by carrying out a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA).
It has become clear that different Fire and Rescue Services throughout the country have different interpretations, and very different ideas about standards and enforcement.
As the explicit purpose of the RRFSO is "to make the law easier to understand and comply with" and reduce the burden of regulations on business, it was clearly not intended that the results would be more onerous for small businesses and householders than the previous regime - but in fact this is not proving to be the case in practice.
Many B&B owners are being told by their local Fire Authority that they "must" instal fire precautions of the sort that would have been required under a current Fire Certificate, even though they would not have had to have a Fire Certificate before October 2006.
Many owners are finding that:
the precautions demanded by fire inspectors in many areas are disproportionate to the risks posed by the premises and their use
the financial cost of compliance is disproportionate to their turnover and profits
the changes required by their fire department would compromise the character of their premises
the changes may be difficult to obtain planning/listed building consent for, and
they are told that the less costly precautions their own FRA indicated are not sufficient, and
the precautions required by their fire department are those designed for large commercial premises such as hotels
As a consequence, many B&Bs are closing or contemplating closure rather than complying, and (no doubt) still more are simply trading illegally, either by choice or (in most cases) out of ignorance of the new law. This situation is also a powerful disincentive to join a quality-assessment scheme, and indeed many are dropping out of such schemes, undermining the industry's objectives (shared by the Government) of increasing its quality standards.
Any wave of B&B closures would have an extremely negative effect on tourism, as much of the accommodation most in demand is the high quality, individual accommodation with personal service found in the "new generation" of small B&Bs.
The threat posed by the 2006 Fire Precautions regime - and the lack of awareness of the changes amongst B&B owners - was one of the reasons behind the moves to set up the Bed and Breakfast Association.
The BBA will inform members about this and other issues affecting them, and campaign on behalf of B&B owners with the regulatory bodies and Government.
The BBA has been lobbying hard, on behalf of B&B owners, with the Government, local authorities and fire services to ensure that the original aims of making the regulations "easier to understand and comply with", risk-based, and proportionately, consistently and reasonably implemented, are delivered in practice. We have taken this up directly with the Fire Minister and his Department (the Department of Communities and Local Government), as well as the Tourism Minister and her Department (the Department of Culture, Media and Sport).
See our news page for the latest developments.
B&B Association subscribing members have free access to information on the latest situation regarding the regulations, and to downloadable copies of the Government's various guidance booklets; these include the new booklet for B&Bs published on 18 November 2008, and the 147 page official "full guide" to Fire Risk Assessments - and subscribing members will receive information about the Association's discussions with the Government on the consisent and proportionate enforcement of the new regulations, including compliance guidance.
To ensure you qualify for all our member benefits now, subscribe now by paying only £54 by secure online credit card payment.
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