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Building Regulations (Amendment) Bill [HL]

My Lords, under its unassuming title, I have the honour to present this Bill to your Lordships today. The Bill's ambition is to save the lives of those who otherwise, for the want of parliamentary action, needlessly die or are maimed or injured in fires, principally through burns or smoke inhalation. This simple Bill will save lives, as well as property, save millions of pounds of public money and significantly improve our environment. By this sensible Bill, we have a chance today to make a real difference to people's lives. I hope that we can. Our modest proposal is to extend the Government’s existing building regulations, whereby sprinklers must be fitted in new residential blocks more than 30 metres in height, to new residential blocks under 30 metres in height. If passed, the Bill would ensure that they, too, are fitted with sprinklers or other fire suppression systems to approved document B standard. New schools, residential care homes and large single-storey retail buildings under 30 metres will also be protected by sprinklers, which can throw a valuable lifeline to the elderly, the infirm, the schoolchild as well as the shopper unfamiliar with the shop fire exits. Last year, 347 of our fellow citizens missed out on those vital few minutes which would have provided the time to run for cover. A death in the family from fire is incalculable in terms of human misery. Nevertheless, the ODPM has suggested that each fatality from fire can cost the economy a staggering £1.4 million. The total cost to our economy was calculated in 2004 at £7 billion. Of that, £2.5 billion is identifiable as damage to property, the loss of viable businesses and the disruption to the nation's workforce. In passing, it should be noted that people increasingly work from home. This, in turn, increases their fire risk and cost to the economy. In layman's terms, this wasted £2.5 billion lost to needless fires would have bought 80 new secondary schools or provided 5,000 hospital beds. This cost is in addition to the fire service’s preventive work and its familiar task of putting out fires and cleaning up the consequent damage. These days, our intrepid firefighters in the modern fire and rescue service have to marry old-fashioned bravery with a new skill set as teachers, public speakers and proselytisers for best fire prevention practice. I should add that sprinklers help to save the environment, not only by reducing the 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide spilt into the atmosphere as a result of putting out unbidden fires, but by eliminating wastefully expended energy as a consequence of having to rebuild or repair burnt buildings. Sprinklers can also conserve 96 per cent of the 5.6 billion litres of water used annually in the United Kingdom to fight large fires. The main groups of people who suffer disproportionately from fire incidents are: students; other 16 to 24 year-olds; the disabled; female single parents; other single, middle-aged people, a number of whom drink and smoke at home, thereby heightening their vulnerability; and the most significant group of all, the elderly, with the over-65s being very vulnerable and the over-80s in the greatest peril of all. Last year, deaths in domestic fires rose 5 per cent from 331 to 347, whereas deaths in other buildings fell by almost half. This strongly suggests that fire safety in domestic buildings has not advanced as speedily as had once been hoped. Moreover, the nation's changing and aging demographic requires homes to be more resistant and sustainable. Further, we must recognise, and I believe that the Government do recognise, that current procedures for evacuation in a fire are antiquated, especially now that more people live longer into old age with a commensurate and increasing lack of mobility. Less mobile people often retreat into a single room to live, which leaves them more vulnerable to dying in fires in the so-called room of origin. These deaths are on the increase and are a worrying development. In these circumstances, smoke alarms are a help, but sprinklers are better. They give a breathing space for the less mobile to make a timely exit. Moreover, sprinklers can extinguish fires by themselves, which is a real plus in saving lives and property. Sprinklers were introduced some 150 years ago, principally to save property. Nowadays, we recognise their pivotal role in saving lives. Where sprinklers have been installed, fire deaths have almost been eliminated, injuries have been reduced by 80 per cent, firefighter safety has been significantly improved and property damage has been reduced by an astounding 80 per cent. These findings are echoed by a 2007 study conducted by the US National Fire Protection Association. Interestingly, it found that where sprinklers are fitted, nine out of 10 fires are confined to the room of origin compared with six out of 10 fires where no sprinklers are fitted. This is important. Given that most people who die in fires succumb in five minutes, the operation of the sprinkler in the first three minutes is crucial. This is especially true given that the average call-out time of even our best fire and rescue services is some 10 minutes. Interestingly, in the UK, we have not, as yet, had multiple fire deaths in buildings with working sprinkler systems. Moreover, given the paramount danger from smoke inhalation, sprinklers beneficially wash the larger particles of smoke and so reduce the toxicity and density of acrid smoke, thereby saving lives. Sprinklers work, and we have the evidence from countries in the vanguard of sensible change. In Vancouver, the first mandatory sprinkler by-law was introduced in 1973. In those days, fire deaths were 7 per cent per 100,000; by the 1990s, the death rate was sharply down to 0.6 per cent. In Scottsdale, Arizona, the sprinkler law was brought in in 1985. Losses attributable to fire were reduced by 90 per cent, which compared favourably to fire losses in unsprinklered buildings, many of which are residential. Nearer to home, in Studley Green in Wiltshire, a 1999 £10 million redevelopment of a housing estate included sprinkler protection in some 200 homes. Subsequently, two fire incidents have occurred. In one, two lives were probably saved by the sprinklers; in the other, considerable property damage was averted. On the Studley Green estate, nine out of 10 householders declared that they liked having sprinklers; three out of four worried less about a fire in their daily round; and only one in five residents worried about the sprinklers going off accidentally. Perhaps I should say a word about the 400 million sprinklers fitted each year worldwide, especially as some people think they are problematic. They are normally activated when the temperature in the room where the fire is burning reaches the preset temperature of the sprinkler head. That is normally 68 degrees centigrade, which is a very high threshold. They are activated as individual heat sensors. The water is released only in the room where a fire is detected. These facts explain why the chance of a sprinkler malfunction is remote; it is computed as one chance in 16 million operations. Like other technologies, sprinkler technology advances in leaps and bounds and other advances in technology help. For instance, the use of PVC pipes in new build overcomes the problems associated with leaks from traditional pipes. Some in the water industry are worried that the traditional lowering of water pressure at night might cause more leaks, but the installation is of new mains in new buildings. This allays the water industry’s groundless fear. I believe this is particularly true of Dwr Cymru, the Welsh water authority. It has been reconciled, having been antagonistic. It is also useful to note that where sprinklers operate, firefighters use less water from their appliances. This has the environmental effect of not contaminating our nation’s watercourses with dirty water, as happens with traditional methods of extinguishing fires. The main cost of sprinklers is the capital cost of installation, which is 1 to 2 per cent of the total capital cost of construction. Annual maintenance costs are small, up to £150 a year. The 2005 BRE report on the effectiveness of sprinklers in residential premises was commissioned by the ODPM. It found sprinklers to be most effective in residential care homes and tall blocks of flats. It generally supported the use of sprinklers. However, caution should be exercised about the report’s conclusions. The Fire Sprinkler Association and the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association challenge some of its contents and findings, including the doubtful cost-benefit analysis. The 1984 Ruegg and Fuller data are precipitate, and so unreliable, given that the legislation was introduced only in 1981. The 2002 Rohr report is also faulty. It mistakenly suggests that fire deaths have occurred in the United States of America in sprinkler-protected buildings. That is simply wrong; they have not. In addition, the BRE report has entirely ignored all the data available from Arizona and Canada, to which I have already alluded. It is simply not good enough to rely on solely UK-based data. I hope my noble friend will look to Wiltshire and Wales for more up-to-date local data, and worldwide for a more comprehensive view. I am sure he has been informed of the legislation similar to today's Bill that is now successfully passing through the Welsh Assembly. Today's Bill is simple and effective. Almost at the stroke of a pen, the building regulations applicable to sprinklers fitted in new buildings over 30 metres high can now operate for residential buildings of less than 30 metres. There are people alive today who will live out the full term of their lives and not perish in an avoidable fire to the great sorrow of their family and friends and the wider community. I hope that this legislative stroke of the pen is enacted, even in the dying embers of the successful mandate of this Government, who are soon to arise phoenix-like from the ashes in the spring of this year.