Fire Risk Assessment in Long Eaton
Long Eaton has a Nottingham postcode but Derbyshire rules. Tell us about your shop, mill unit, flats or HMO and one qualified local assessor will quote a fixed price, from £200 for a small shop.
Who needs a fire risk assessment in Long Eaton?
Run an upholstery workshop, a Market Place shop or a unit in an old lace mill? Own a converted house with a shared hallway, or let rooms to sharers? Then you need a fire risk assessment, written down. The council here is Erewash Borough Council, not Nottingham City. The fire service that enforces the rules is Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service, not Nottinghamshire.
For the jobs that come up most in this town, a shop on the High Street starts from £200, a converted house with two to four flats, hallway and stairs only, from £280, and a workshop or industrial unit from £350. One qualified local assessor takes your enquiry, names a fixed price and agrees a date with you. The written report is yours to keep.
Erewash vs Nottingham City: HMO and rental rules side by side
Same NG postcode, different councils, different rules.
| Rule | Erewash (Long Eaton, Sandiacre, Sawley, Ilkeston) | Nottingham City |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory HMO licence (five or more tenants forming at least two households) | Applies. £983.50 for a first licence, £843.75 to renew. Normally runs for up to five years. | Applies. The standard fee is £1,607 for houses of nine bedrooms or fewer, set in April 2026. |
| Additional HMO licensing (3 or 4 sharers) | None. Erewash says it does not run an additional or selective scheme. | Citywide since January 2024. Catches 3 or more unrelated people sharing facilities. Same fee. |
| Selective licensing (ordinary lets) | None. | 1 December 2023 to 30 November 2028 in some or all of 15 wards. £950 standard. |
| Article 4 (planning permission for small HMOs) | Confirmed 5 March 2026, in force 6 March 2027. Covers all of the Ilkeston urban area, most of Long Eaton and parts of Sandiacre and Sawley. | In place since 2012. |
| Fire paperwork asked for | Licence conditions require proof the fire detection system is installed and working. | Landlords upload an alarm test certificate with the application, and an emergency lighting certificate and fire risk assessment when those apply. |
| Fire service | Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service | Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service |
Sources: Erewash HMO licences, Article 4 notice, Nottingham licensing, Nottingham fees.
Does my Long Eaton rental need a licence?
- Five or more people, not all one family, sharing a kitchen or bathroom: Erewash’s mandatory licence applies. A flat inside a converted building counts too if it passes that same test on its own.
- 3 or 4 sharers: no Erewash licence today. But if you plan to turn a family house into a small HMO inside the Article 4 area, from 6 March 2027 you will need planning permission first.
- A family or couple: no licence in Erewash. Any shared hallway or stairs still needs a fire risk assessment.
- Not sure you are licensed? In February 2026 Ilkeston Life reported the council estimates around 160 HMOs in the borough and is checking every one after finding many unlicensed or non-compliant.
More on HMO duties for sharers’ houses on our HMO landlords page.
Long Eaton buildings: what comes up
Long Eaton grew on lace. Erewash’s Lace Factories conservation appraisal describes the red brick factories along the western edge of the Erewash Canal. Harrington Mill (1887) was reputed at the time to be the largest lace factory in England. Bridge Mills (1902) was the last multi-storey, steam powered tenement lace factory built in the town. “Tenement” meant one building let to many firms, and plenty of these mills still work that way.
Multi-let lace mills by the canal
Harrington Mill on Leopold Street now houses furniture and upholstery showrooms and offices across four floors, according to Furniture News in May 2026. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue says that if you share a building, a revised plan must be shared with the other occupiers. The assessor checks each escape stair, how floors are separated and whether the alarm reaches every unit.
Upholstery workshops
Long Eaton has more high-quality upholstery makers than any other UK town and was recognised in 2014 as the UK centre for quality upholstery manufacture (Furniture News). Foam, wadding and fabric burn fast and give off thick smoke. The assessor looks at stock levels, offcut build-up, adhesive storage and whether fabric rolls narrow the way out. Larger sites are priced as a warehouse or industrial unit.
Shops with flats above on Market Place and High Street
Erewash’s conservation areas management plan says “Vacant upper floors create a poor image of the town” and backs converting them. Every conversion puts a home on top of a business. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue’s guidance asks for 60-minute protection between the shop and the home, or 30 minutes only where automatic detection is linked to the flat, and a way out that does not pass through the shop. More on our landlords page.
Mills converted to flats
Springfield Mill on Bridge Street, Sandiacre, is a Grade II listed lace mill built in 1888 and converted to housing from 2005 (Derbyshire Historic Environment Record). In April 2020 Derbyshire Fire and Rescue fought a roof fire there and said firefighting saved about three quarters of the building (PA report; no cause was given). In mill flats the assessor checks front doors, roof voids, risers and what residents have been told. More on our blocks of flats page.
What people actually ask about flats over shops and shared mills
“Is the fire/smoke alarm system the landlord or the commercial tenants responsibility by law in this case?” (as written)
A shop and flat landlord, Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, November 2019
The duty follows control. A business tenant is the responsible person for the unit it runs, the landlord for any parts it keeps, and the lease can shift some tasks. In a Long Eaton parade with flats above, the real question is whether a fire in the shop would be picked up before it reaches the homes. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue only accepts lighter separation where detection links to the flats, so the assessor looks at shop and flats together.
“Should we still cover the entire site with one large fire alarm system or should this be broken up into separate alarm systems, basically one per tenant?”
A commercial landlord, Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, November 2017
Either can be lawful. What matters is that a fire anywhere is spotted and everyone who could be trapped hears about it in time. In a Long Eaton lace mill shared by several firms on different floors, a fire in a locked unit on a Saturday can go unnoticed next door if each tenant has a separate, unlinked system. The assessor maps who shares which stairs before advising, and Derbyshire Fire and Rescue expects occupiers of a shared building to swap their fire plans.
The law in plain English, enforced from Derbyshire
English law applies as anywhere else. The checkers differ: Derbyshire Fire and Rescue for fire safety, Erewash’s Private Sector Housing Team (0115 931 6010) for HMO licences.
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005: the order that bites on Long Eaton’s workshops, mill floors and shopfronts, plus the hallways and stairs inside flat conversions and HMOs. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue says the whole assessment now has to be written down and kept under review.
- Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: once a building holds two flats or more, whoever manages it owes residents written fire instructions and an explanation of their fire doors. Above 11 metres the duty grows into routine door checks, the shared ones each quarter and flat front doors each year. Most Long Eaton conversions sit well below that height.
- Housing Act 2004, Part 2: the HMO licensing rules. In Erewash only the mandatory scheme is in use.
- Standards: an upholstery workshop or High Street shop is assessed against PAS 79-1:2020. Homes are a separate standard: since 2025 that has been BS 9792:2025, the 2025 replacement for PAS 79-2. It reaches HMOs, mill flats and the stairs that lead from a shop doorway up to a flat.
Letting in NG10 and unsure where you stand? The landlord fire safety check runs through it.
A typical Long Eaton job: five sharers in a terraced house
An illustrative example based on the guidance and prices on this page. Not a real customer or property.
Five unrelated tenants rent rooms in a five-bedroom terrace a short walk from Long Eaton town centre, sharing one kitchen. Erewash treats that as a mandatory HMO, so the owner pays £983.50 for a first licence and has to prove the alarm system works. The owner also wants a fire risk assessment on file.
On the visit, the assessor looks at where the detectors sit, the bedroom doors that open onto the stairs, the kitchen and the way out to the street. A house of this size falls in the £350 band for 5 to 7 bedrooms. The date is agreed at booking and the findings come as a written report.
Got a shop with a flat over it, or a mill unit instead? The full cost guide lists every band, and the home page explains how an enquiry is passed on.
Long Eaton fire risk assessment FAQs
Updated October 2026
Get a Fire Risk Assessment Quote in Long Eaton
Tell us about the building. One qualified local assessor reads your enquiry and gets back to you with a fixed quote. No obligation.
Prefer to talk? Call 0115 647 8715 · lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.