Fire Risk Assessment in Arnold & Carlton
Front Street shops with flats over them, Netherfield terraces, shared houses and workshops. Describe the building once and a single qualified assessor from the area prices the job up front.
Who needs a fire risk assessment in Arnold and Carlton
If you run a shop, office or workshop, let an HMO, or own a building whose flats share a hallway or stair, you need a written fire risk assessment. In Arnold and Carlton that usually means a shop with flats above or a shared terrace. A family home with no shared parts does not need one.
Arnold, Carlton, Gedling, Netherfield and Burton Joyce all sit in Gedling Borough Council. Its licensing map looks nothing like the city’s, which catches out landlords with lets on both sides of the boundary. A Front Street shop unit is priced from £200, and the stair and landing of a terrace split into flats from £280 (cost guide).
Gedling borough licensing compared with Nottingham City
Cross the city boundary at Mapperley and the paperwork changes.
| Rule | Gedling Borough (Arnold, Carlton, Netherfield) | Nottingham City |
|---|---|---|
| Large shared house licence (five sharers or more, from separate households) | Yes. Fee listed on the council’s HMO page: £335 | Yes |
| Additional HMO licence (smaller shared houses) | No additional scheme | Citywide since January 2024. Standard fee £1,607 from 1 April 2026 (up to 9 bedrooms) |
| Selective licence (almost every private let in the area) | Netherfield: 5 January 2025 to 4 January 2030. Carlton Hill, Colwick, Daybrook and Newstead Village: 1 November 2022 to 31 October 2027. Online fee £645 to £840 | Second scheme since 1 December 2023, around 30,000 homes. Fee £759 to £1,318 |
| Fire paperwork asked for with the application | Selective: gas safety certificate and EICR listed. No fire risk assessment listed | Additional: fire alarm test certificate, emergency lighting certificate and a fire risk assessment where applicable |
| Article 4 (planning permission for small HMOs) | Proposed for Chandos Street, Ashwell Street and Beech Avenue, Netherfield. Reported in June 2026 as expected to start early 2027 if confirmed | In force: converting a family home to a 3 to 6 person HMO needs planning permission |
Sources: Gedling selective licensing, Nottingham City additional licensing and selective licensing, Gedling Eye, June 2026. Fees change, so check before you apply.
Quick check: is your Arnold or Carlton let licensable?
- A house shared by five unrelated tenants or more: Gedling’s mandatory HMO licence applies, from Burton Joyce to Daybrook.
- Any other private let in Netherfield, Carlton Hill, Colwick, Daybrook or Newstead Village: a selective licence. That includes a three or four person shared house, because the Housing Act only lifts selective licensing from HMOs that need an HMO licence (section 85).
- A family let or small shared house in Arnold town centre, Gedling village, Burton Joyce or Mapperley Plains: no licence from Gedling, outside the areas above. Check the map.
- Mapperley: it is split. The Mapperley ward belongs to Nottingham City, while Mapperley Plains beyond the city boundary is Gedling (source). Your postcode decides which rules apply.
Arnold and Carlton buildings: what comes up
Shops with flats above
Front Street in Arnold and the streets around Carlton Square mix shop units with flats overhead. LACORS housing fire safety guidance treats a shop below homes as higher risk and lists 60-minute separation for walls, ceilings and doors between the commercial and residential parts (LACORS guide). The assessor checks that separation, whether the flats’ only stair passes the shop’s back store, and whether a fire in the shop at night would be detected upstairs.
Netherfield and Carlton Hill terraces
Netherfield grew from 60 people in 1801 to 4,646 in 1901 on the back of the railway, and rows of Victorian terraces went up to house them (source). When Gedling ran its first licensing pilot there, it inspected over 400 homes and found more than 78% needed work, with some showing “inadequate fire protection or detection” (Gedling Council, 2022). Shared terraces get the stair, kitchen position and alarm interlinking checked.
Former hosiery buildings
The former J and R Morley hosiery factory at the junction of Mansfield Road and Nottingham Road in Daybrook was built in stages, with a three-storey main block of 1885 and a four-storey rear building of 1901 (Nottinghamshire HER). It has been Grade II listed since January 1994 (listing), and Allen and Solly’s Hand Frame Shop was listed in 1995 (Gedling Council). In old multi-storey works the assessor looks at travel distances, a single stair serving several floors, and listed doors that cannot simply be swapped.
Chase Farm and newer flats
The former Gedling Colliery site is now the Chase Farm estate, with 506 homes in its first phase and permission in principle for 544 more (Gedling Eye). Only blocks with a shared entrance or stair need an assessment.
What people actually ask
“I own a flat above a lighting shop that I am trying to sell. The buyers’ solicitors have asked for a Fire Risk Assessment…”
Someone selling their flat, writing on the Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, February 2024
The flat itself is a private dwelling, so the assessment the solicitor wants is really the shop occupier’s, plus the freeholder’s for any shared hallway or stair. Ask both for theirs first. The key question is usually the floor between shop and flat, where LACORS lists 60-minute separation.
“The Local Authority is insisting I have a wired smoke alarm fitted (England) and a new EICR once completed (just got a new one !).” (as written)
A landlord on Property118, November 2024
The poster’s home was a two-bed terrace from around 1900, much like the streets of Netherfield and Carlton Hill. The national rule asks only for a smoke alarm on each storey with living accommodation, but a council inspecting a home can ask for more. Gedling inspects in its licensing areas, and its Netherfield pilot treated poor detection as needing immediate action. If you get a notice, ask which hazard it relates to before you rewire.
Which rules bite on a Carlton or Arnold building
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The shop unit and the stair the flats share both fall under it; only space used by a single household counts as a private dwelling (article 2). With a shop below flats there are often two responsible people, who must co-operate and co-ordinate (article 22).
- Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. Where two flats or more escape down a common stair, as in a shop with flats above, residents get written fire door information on moving in and once a year after that. Quarterly communal door checks and yearly flat entrance door checks apply only above 11 metres, which rules out most Arnold and Carlton buildings (regulation 10).
- Housing Act 2004. Gedling’s HMO and selective licences. See HMO landlords and landlords.
- Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm rules. Every private let needs a smoke alarm on each storey with living accommodation and a CO alarm in rooms with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker (gov.uk). Try the landlord fire safety check.
- The standards. A shop or workshop assessment follows PAS 79-1:2020. For a shared house or the flats upstairs, the assessor uses BS 9792:2025, the 2025 successor to PAS 79-2 (BSI).
Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service enforces in workplaces and shared parts. Gedling Borough Council handles licensing and conditions inside rented homes.
What a shop-and-flats job costs in Carlton
Two bands cover most buildings here: the communal stair over a parade shop starts at £280, and a three or four bedroom Netherfield terrace let as an HMO starts at £250. Offices, care homes and larger blocks are on the cost guide, and dates are agreed with the assessor directly.
Typical job: a shop with two flats above in Carlton
An illustrative example based on the guidance and prices on this page. Not a real customer or property.
A takeaway trades on the ground floor of a two-storey Carlton building, and two flats above share a side door and stair. Their landlord books the communal areas, from £280.
The assessor checks whether the wall and ceiling between the takeaway and the stair give the 60-minute separation LACORS lists, whether the stair is detected and lit, and whether the flat entrance doors close on their own. You receive a written report with prioritised actions, which the landlord shares with the takeaway, since both have duties under article 22.
Arnold and Carlton fire risk assessment questions
Back to the Nottingham Fire Assessments homepage. Updated October 2026
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