Tighter Building Regs to reduce carbon emissions
The government has announced changes to Building Regulations designed to cut carbon emissions on new builds by 30 per cent.
The tighter Regs will come into force in June 2022, with a transition period to allow for planning applications that are in progress at the time.
Junior housing minister Eddie Hughes said the change would pave the way for the Future Homes and Buildings Standard in 2025 and would mean all future homes would be net zero-ready and would not need retrofitting.
“The changes will significantly improve the energy efficiency of the buildings where we live, work and spend our free time and are an important step on our country’s journey towards a cleaner, greener built environment,” he said.
The announcements were set out in the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)’s response to a public consultation, which ran from January to April on the Future Buildings Standard. It details interim uplifts to Parts L and F of the Building Regulations and the introduction of Part O which addresses overheating.
While welcoming the changes, RIBA president Simon Allford warned that regulations must continue to tighten to hit the RIBA 2030 standard.
The new Building Regulations will come into effect from June 15, 2022.
The DLUHC said transitional arrangements for the next six months will mean that if a building notice, initial notice or full plans for building work are submitted to a local authority before June 15, 2022 then, provided the building work commences by June 15, 2023, work on that building will be permitted under the previous standards.
