NEWS

News and analysis

UK building and land safety, audits and compliance — practical notes, product releases and our reading of the regulations. Opinion and general information, not legal advice.

SAMRISK opinion and general information — not legal or professional advice.

171 / 171

Filter by topic

Satellite view of central Croydon, one of the largest clusters of tall residential buildings outside inner London, where fire mains are a design requirement

Latest · Fire safety

8 September 2026 6 min read

Dry risers, and the supply you only need once

A dry riser sits empty for its entire life until a fire crew connects to it. Building Regulations require fire mains above 18m, BS 9990 sets a six monthly inspection and an annual pressure test, and Regulation 7 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 adds a monthly check with a 24 hour reporting clock. Almost all of the failure is in the record, not the pipe.

Read article

Satellite view of Sheffield city centre, a dense mix of shops, licensed premises and converted upper floors of the kind fire and rescue authorities audit most

4 September 20266 min readFire safety

Fire safety audits, and the notices that rose this year

The Home Office published its fire prevention and protection figures for England on 2 September 2026. Fire and rescue authorities carried out 50,195 audits, 60% came back satisfactory, and prohibition notices rose 27% in a single year. The audit does not test the building so much as the record you keep about it.

Satellite view of Nottingham, a city of terraced and converted rented housing where gas heating is the norm

1 September 20265 min readMaintenance and management

Gas safety before the heating season, and the two month window

Heating systems come back on across England in the next few weeks, and the annual gas safety check is the one record that has to be in date before they do. Regulation 36A lets you do the check up to two months early without losing the anniversary, which makes September the sensible month to catch the whole portfolio up.

Satellite view of Poundbury in Dorset, where hedgerows and planted boundaries run through a modern settlement

31 August 20265 min readSite and land

Vegetation clearance in September, and the checks that come first

The main bird nesting season is generally taken as 1 March to 31 August, so 1 September is the day the hedge and scrub work restarts across a lot of sites. The date does not lift every protection, and the checks you did beforehand only count if somebody wrote them down.

Satellite view of Headingley in Leeds, terraced streets with a high concentration of shared houses

28 August 20266 min readRegulation and announcements

HMOs, the start of term, and the penalty that rose in May

Shared houses change hands in the last week of August, and the duties that follow the building do not pause for the handover. Here is what applies to every HMO whether it is licensed or not, what changed on 1 May 2026 when the maximum penalty went from £30,000 to £40,000, and what the record has to show.

Satellite view of Redruth in Cornwall, a granite area of the south west where radon potential is high

27 August 20265 min readSite and land

Radon, and the three months that start now

A valid radon measurement takes three months, and the highest readings come when a building is shut up against the cold. Detectors placed at the end of August cover the heating season. Here is what the levels are, which duty applies to a workplace rather than a home, and what the record has to show.

Satellite view of Newcastle upon Tyne, a northern city with a large social and private rented housing stock

26 August 20265 min readRegulation

Excess cold, and the clock that starts on 30 November

Awaab's Law Phase 2 comes into force on 30 November 2026, and excess cold joins the hazards that carry statutory deadlines. It arrives a few weeks into the heating season, when reports cluster. Here is what the clock asks for, and what a landlord has to be able to produce.

Satellite view of the residential towers, balconies and multistorey car parks around Salford Quays and MediaCityUK, Greater Manchester

21 August 20267 min readRegulation and announcements

The Approved Document B rewrite, and the edition your building was built to

The Building Safety Regulator consulted on the biggest set of changes to England's fire safety guidance in years. It closed on 1 July and the proposals carry a target implementation date of 2 September 2029. Most of it applies to new work, which is exactly why the useful job for a manager is knowing which edition their existing building was designed against.

Satellite view of terraced streets in Selly Oak, Birmingham, an area with a high concentration of private rented housing

18 August 20267 min readRegulation and announcements

The landlord database, and the records it will ask you for

From late 2026 every private landlord in England has to register themselves and their properties on a government database, and hand over gas, electrical and EPC information as part of doing it. Letting or advertising an unregistered property carries a civil penalty of up to £7,000. The registration is straightforward. Finding the certificates is the part that takes time.

Satellite view of mature parkland trees and the surrounding residential streets at Sefton Park, Liverpool

18 August 20266 min readSite and land

Tree safety before the storms, and the record you can produce

The risk from trees is genuinely low, around a one in ten million chance of being killed by one in any year. That is exactly why the duty is about proportionate, recorded inspection rather than endless surveying. Storm season starts in September, and the walk round is worth doing in August.

Showing 10 of 171 articles