Building regulations – more buildings caught by strictest standards

The Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 will come into force on 6 April 2026, introducing key changes to fire safety standards.

Previously, the most stringent regulations intended to counter fire were applied only to residential property and only when the relevant buildings were over 11m tall.

Recent inquiries into building fires resulting in fatalities have concluded that overnight accommodation is another category of building exposing people to risk. The government has therefore made two significant amendments to the building regulations:

Cladding restrictions

The present ban on combustible external wall cladding systems has been extended by the new amendments to apply to hostels, hotels, guest houses, boarding houses, and other short-stay accommodations, with these building types now also being subject to cladding restrictions regardless of their height.

Automatic Fire Suppression Systems (AFSS)

Mandatory Standard 2.15 governs where AFSS must be installed to slow or stop the spread of fire, as well as helping to minimise volume of smoke, to assist people escaping in the event of a fire. Traditional buildings were often not constructed with automatic fire suppression systems such as sprinklers, and where these buildings have been repurposed to be used as hotels, they have not been required to have such systems retrofitted.

Recent Fatal Accident Inquiry reports have determined that this lack of fire suppression is an unacceptable risk for historical buildings in use as overnight accommodation, as the unfamiliar layout of a hotel makes it difficult to safely evacuate guests. As such, any “traditionally constructed residential building” that is converted to have “15 or more rooms used for sleeping accommodation” must now have an AFSS.

When do these amendments come into effect?

These amendment regulations will apply to all relevant building projects, unless:

• The work is completed before 6 April 2026, or;
• The contract for works was entered into before 6 April 2026, and the work completes before 6 October 2026

Must these changes be made to buildings immediately?

The quick answer is, ‘not automatically’. For traditional buildings, AFSS must be installed if that building is being converted into a hotel or other short-stay accommodation. If an existing traditional building used as short-stay accommodation is being extended or renovated, it is likely that an AFSS must be installed if a building warrant is required for that work. Existing buildings that don’t yet have one are not required to install one if the above conditions cannot be met.

As for the cladding restrictions, the same rules apply regarding building warrants – if work is done that requires a warrant, then the cladding will most likely need to be remediated as part of those works. Outside of this situation, there appears to remain a limited scope for hotels to be compelled to remediate cladding, however Fatal Accident Inquiries have recognised the high-risk status of hotels. While building owners may choose to remediate high risk cladding themselves, it remains to be seen if mechanisms will be introduced whereby building owners can be forced to do so. 

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