Climate Change and our future homes - Alistair Bertrand, Chebsey & Co

Climate Change and our future homes

With Climate Change affecting us all changes are being made to the Building Regulations which will affect how we build our new homes and alter existing properties. Changes are being made to the Building Regulations in 2010 onwards to aim towards making buildings carbon neutral. Buildings in the United Kingdom currently account for 44% of CO2 emissions, 26 per cent of these come from homes and 18 per cent come from non-residential buildings.

The government is looking at new homes being net zero carbon from 2016. The government has also announced an ambitious target for all non-domestic developments to be net zero carbon from 2019.

The government published on 1 September 2009 The Future of Building Control: An Implementation Plan which will improve the building control system as well as aiming to reduce the effect of climate change.

The regulations will be reviewed every three years from 2010. The first review relates to part L of the building regulations in respect of conserving fuel and power, part F relating to ventilation and part J relating to combustion appliances and fuels storage devices.

The government issued a consultation paper in respect of the proposed new regulations which can be found at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/partlconsultationpaper.pdf. The consultation has taken place and the final version of the regulations is awaited.

Part L implements the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive which sets the same standards throughout Europe. For new buildings the proposed regulations will require that:

• the buildings does not exceed a target CO2 emission rate
• the fabric of the building and services of the building comply with limits on design flexibility and that the services are energy efficient
• limits on the effects of solar gains in summer are achieved by, for example, the orientation and size of windows and ventilation of the building
• the target CO2 emission rate is met on the construction of the building by meeting rates of air tightness as well as providing adequate ventilation
• the owner of the building is provided with sufficient information about the building and the services in the building as well as the maintenance requirements in order for the building to run in a manner that uses no more fuel and power than is reasonably required

The regulations will also apply to existing buildings and most extensions, renovation work and services being installed will need to comply with the regulations. At present these only relate to the parts of the building being extended or to the services being installed and not to the building as a whole.

In order to reduce the risk of health and safety issues part F has been amended to require adequate ventilation to the property as the amendments to part L provide for more airtight buildings. Again part J has been amended to ensure that combustion appliances can function safely with the amended provisions in part L.

Over the three year cycles more energy efficient requirements will be implemented both to new developments and existing properties. Ambitious targets have been set under the Climate Change Act 2008 for decarbonisation. The Act requires 34 per cent cut in emissions on 1990 levels by 2020. In view of the proportion of CO2 emissions emanating from buildings much of this will have to come from making buildings more energy efficient.

Alistair Bertrand

Alistair is a commercial and residential solicitor. He can be contacted at Chebsey & Co, 51 London End, Beaconsfield, HP9 2HW www.chebsey.com Tel; 01494 670440