The gap between a plan
and an outcome is where
the system fails the people
inside it.
Pulse City builds the governance frameworks that close the gap between regulatory compliance and operational capability in high-rise buildings.
Framework One
Vertical Delay Protocol™
The first certifiable standard governing internal response time in high-rise cardiac arrest. A patient who receives their first shock within four minutes has a 60% chance of survival. Most buildings cannot deliver that.
AssessDesignTrainManage
Framework Two
Vertical Evacuation Protocol™
The operational execution layer for vulnerable occupant evacuation in high-rise residential buildings. Filing a PEEP satisfies a legal obligation. It does not move anyone off floor fourteen.
Pulse City was founded by practitioners who have worked inside the systems that are failing. We have been the building managers who could not move residents. We have been the first responders arriving to find no defibrillator, no trained staff, no plan.
The problem in high-rise safety is not regulation. The UK has comprehensive legislation covering evacuation, fire safety, and cardiac response obligations. The problem is the gap between what a building is required to have on paper and what it can actually do under pressure.
We exist to close that gap — through frameworks that are operational, not theoretical. Certifiable standards that create accountability, not just documentation.
Our mission is to make the buildings people live and work in perform as well under pressure as the people inside them deserve.
Framework One
Vertical Delay Protocol™
In a standard cardiac arrest, every minute without defibrillation reduces the chance of survival by approximately 10%. In a ground-floor office or shopping centre, average response time from collapse to first shock is under four minutes. In a high-rise building, the same event can take twelve.
The Vertical Delay Protocol™ is the first certifiable standard designed specifically to govern cardiac response time in multi-storey buildings.
The VDP™ addresses the three structural causes of delay: equipment placement and accessibility, staff training and coverage, and escalation procedure under time pressure. It is not a training course. It is an operational standard — one that a building can be assessed against, certified to, and held accountable for maintaining.
For responsible parties and building managers, VDP™ certification provides a defensible audit trail. For residents and workers, it means the building they occupy has been assessed against a standard that prioritises their survival, not just their building's compliance record.
The Building Safety Act 2022 and associated regulations require building owners to maintain Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans for residents who cannot self-evacuate. Tens of thousands of buildings in the UK are now technically compliant. Almost none of them can actually execute.
Filing a PEEP satisfies a legal obligation. It does not move anyone off floor fourteen.
The Vertical Evacuation Protocol™ is the operational execution layer that sits beneath the documentation. It maps actual resident vulnerability against building-specific constraints — lift availability, stairwell width, staff resource at different times of day — and produces a live plan that works under the conditions that will exist during an actual emergency, not idealised assumptions.
For responsible parties facing enforcement action or legal challenge, VEP™ provides a documented, tested, and defensible operational record. For residents who depend on evacuation support, it provides something more important: confidence that the plan exists in practice, not only on paper.
Resident AssessmentOperational DesignLive Plan ManagementDrill & Certification
Advisory
When the frameworks need to be built around you.
Not every building fits a standard template. High-rise mixed-use developments, buildings in active remediation, recently acquired residential portfolios, and schemes with unusual occupancy profiles often require advisory work before a framework can be applied.
Pulse City provides direct advisory engagements for responsible parties, building owners, and managing agents who need expert input at the strategic level — before procurement, during a regulatory review, or in response to an enforcement notice.
Regulatory Readiness
Assessment of your current compliance position against Building Safety Act obligations, fire safety requirements, and cardiac response duties. Delivered as a written report with prioritised actions.
Procurement Support
Independent specification and evaluation support for building safety procurement. We help you buy the right capability, not just the right documentation.
Expert Review
Peer review of existing emergency plans, evacuation strategies, and cardiac response arrangements. Identifies gaps, conflicts, and unexecutable assumptions.
Enforcement Response
Support for building owners and managing agents responding to enforcement notices or preparing for regulatory inspection. Structured remediation planning and documentation.
Contact
Start the conversation.
We work with building owners, responsible parties, managing agents, and local authorities. If you are responsible for a high-rise building and want to understand what your current position looks like, get in touch.
