Westminster has announced plans to make sprinklers mandatory in English care homes beginning March 2025.

This comes “in response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s phase one recommendations”, as revealed by building safety and homelessness minister Rushanara Ali.

The UK Government is making a number of changes in response to the Grenfell disaster, in which 72 residents of the tower block died due to a fire, including fire safety and evacuation procedures for the elderly, as well as the use of sprinklers in care homes.

Regardless of a care home’s height, sprinkler systems will become mandatory from 2 March 2025, Ali confirmed in a written statement to Parliament.

She wrote: “We are introducing a provision for sprinklers to be installed in new care homes.”

She went on: “Sprinklers enhance fire protection where residents may be reliant on others for help and assistance, especially if a building evacuation is needed.

“Many care home providers already include sprinklers in new designs. For those that do not yet provide for sprinklers, again, I recognise that businesses and investors seek certainty.

“So, care home owners and developers will benefit from a six-month transition period until the guidance comes into effect, and will then have a further six months to enable work on current development projects that are underway, or about to start, to continue.”

The Fire Industry Association said that the move “raise[s] questions about compliance and implementation, especially regarding alternative technologies like water-mist systems.”

This follows the recent news of HC-One being fined more than £500,000 due to a fire death in one of its care homes. Read more below: