Join us in opposing the Government’s proposal to ban the use of safe structural timber in the external wall of buildings with a floor above 11m.

22.05.2020

We have submitted our response to the government’s consultation for the review of the ban on the use of combustible materials in and on the external walls of a building, repeating the messaging of the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) and the RIBA.

As we follow intently the changes to regulations following Grenfell we support measures to improve fire safety in all buildings. We believe this should be evidence based and should not risk damaging efforts to combat climate change where it would bring little benefit to the safety of buildings. As a practice we remain material agnostic, making sustainability decisions based on data and analysis, but it is clear that structural timber has a large part to play in the future construction industry.

We also urge the government to urgently fund more research on fire performance of low-carbon materials to ensure that the industry can tackle the dual challenges of fire-safety and climate change with decisions based on rigorous evidence rather than perceptions of risk.

The consultation is open until Monday 25th so we urge everyone to refer to ACAN’s campaign and submit their own response.