Read our policy. The Code for Sustainable Homes allowed councils to adopt their own sustainability levels as a planning requirement for new residential development, with code level 3, 4, 5 or 6 as potential planning conditions.
BRE has said it will continue to certify schemes under the code and the body launched a new national quality mark for consumers to help them understand the code at the Ecobuild conference in earlier this year. It both drove down the environmental impact of new homes in the UK and stimulated a drop in pricing of residential renewable technology prices.
A national standard such as Building Regs is eminently sensible, and useful, for national players, but ignores localism in decision-making. Now, as so often, a sudden policy shift has left a question mark over what is to come next. The Code has done a good job but had become a bit more complex in how compliance and overlapping and conflicting with other regulation.
London Society calls for greater housing powers for Greater London and more diverse array of affordable options.
However ONS finds that activity down sharply in the third quarter overall as materials shortages bite. The DCLG reported that there were , post-construction stage certificates and , design stage certificates issued up to 31 December As a result of the Housing Standards Review many of the requirements of the Code for Sustainable Homes were consolidated into the Building Regulations. Prior to the withdrawal of the Code an addendum was published in May bringing the Code in line with regulatory and national guidance changes and to Part L of the Building Regulations.
A star rating system is used with a blue star awarded for each level achieved, extending from one star to six the maximum , depending on the extent to which the building has achieved the required Code standards. In order to achieve a particular Code level, and the associated sustainability rating, a home must integrate minimum standards, and attain additional points for other design features. The Code assigns one or more performance requirements assessment criteria to all of the environmental issues.
When each performance requirement is achieved, a credit is awarded. The total number of credits available to a category is the sum of credits available for all the issues within it. Within each category, credits are awarded for achieving specified degrees of performance. The weighting factors show the contribution made by each category to the total performance recognised and rewarded by the Code. If any of the standards for the three non-creditable issues are not met, then a zero rating will result regardless of the other credits achieved, including the creditable mandatory issues.
Two issues which had been increasing in importance, and had increasing mandatory minimum standards were:. A definition of a zero carbon home was omitted from the addendum to the Code as it will be defined by future legislation.
The final two issues with mandatory requirements are fabric energy efficiency FEE and lifetime homes. To achieve an overall Code rating of level 5 it is necessary to achieve at least seven credits in FEE. To achieve an overall Code rating of level 6 it is necessary to achieve at least seven credits in FEE and three credits in lifetime homes.
If all the non-creditable mandatory standards are met, but one of the creditable mandatory issues fails to reach the minimum required to achieve a higher level, the rating will be determined by the lowest mandatory level met.
The assessment process now for legacy cases only should progress in order through the environmental impact categories and issues. The mandatory requirements for CO 2 emissions, FEE, internal water use and lifetime homes should be checked and confirmed at the minimum values to meet the Code level sought.
The remaining tradable credits should be checked and confirmed that they contribute to the required Code level. Further credits are available on a free-choice or tradable basis from other issues so developers may choose how to add performance credits converted through weighting to percentage points to achieve the rating they are aiming for.
The Directive requires that all new homes and other homes, when they are sold or leased have an Energy Performance Certificate providing key information about the energy efficiency and carbon performance of the home. To avoid the need for duplication, energy assessment under the Code uses the same calculation methodology. In , the DCLG issued details of how some of the levels will be calculated. The examples below to detail the two extremes of levels under the Code for Sustainable Homes: Levels 1 and 6.
Although the Code was subsequently updated and has now been withdrawn, the examples are useful in demonstrating how consideration of the various environmental issues can lead to the achievement of a particular Code level. This could be achieved by:. The home would have to be designed to use no more than about litres of water per person per day. This could be achieved by installing a number of items such as:. However, this still does not complete the list of requirements. To be awarded Level 1, the home must amass a total of 36 points.
At the other extreme, a home meeting the exemplary Level 6 status will have to be completely zero carbon with zero net emissions of CO 2 from all energy use in the home. Furthermore, the home will have to be designed to use no more than about 80 litres of water per person per day. This could be achieved by fitting such items as:. Four volumes of case studies were issued by the DCLG, providing examples of how new Code Homes were designed, planned and built, and what they are like to live in.
In February , the Zero Carbon Hub published a guide that uses a number of new housing developments as illustrative schemes to demonstrate approaches that could be taken.
It should be noted that the Zero Carbon Hub is no longer being actively contributed to or updated, but information on improving the performance of new homes is still accessible on its website. Since the withdrawal of the Code for Sustainable Homes, BRE has developed a voluntary standard, the Home Quality Mark HQM , that is designed to provide an indication of the quality and performance of a new home allowing house builders to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
Using a five-star rating system, the HQM provides clear information to householders on the overall running costs of the home, its health and wellbeing benefits, the environmental footprint of the home as well as its resilience to flooding and overheating to allow for changes in climate.
Assessors can be found on the online Green Book. Waste Scotland Regulations Waste England and Wales Regulations Waste Regulations Northern Ireland The following is available for free download from www. This includes any policy requiring any level of the Code for Sustainable Homes to be achieved by new development as the government has now withdrawn the code, aside from the management of legacy cases. Existing policies on technical housing standards or requirements should be considered and updated as appropriate.
Local validation requirements should also be checked to ensure they do not request information that is no longer necessary. The optional new national technical standards should be required only through new Local Plan policies not Neighbourhood Plans.
They should only be included if they address a clearly evidenced need and where their impact on viability has been considered. Planning permissions should not require compliance with any technical housing standards except where Local Planning Authorities have existing policies on access, internal space, or water efficiency even if these conflict with the new national technical standards.
Where any such existing policy refers to the Code for Sustainable Homes, LPAs may continue to apply requirements for standards equivalent to the new national technical standard. Existing Local Plan, Neighbourhood Plan, and supplementary planning document policies relating to water efficiency, access and internal space should be interpreted by reference to the nearest equivalent new national technical standard.
Compliance with the new national technical standards should only be required where there is a relevant current Local Plan policy. For the specific issue of energy performance, LPAs will continue to be able to set and apply policies in their Local Plans requiring energy performance standards that exceed the requirements of Building Regulations until the commencement of amendments to the Planning and Energy Act in the Deregulation Bill This is expected to happen alongside the introduction of zero carbon homes policy in late The government has stated that, from then, the energy performance requirements in Building Regulations will be set at a level equivalent to the former Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4.
SRA ID: Login Register. Code for Sustainable Homes replaced with new standards 22 May
0コメント