The development of the next Building Regulations is now underway, consultations for proposed changes to the regulations are opening and closing on the 27th April, responses on aspects that link to the Green Deal proposals in section two are to be requested by the 27th March. The consultation will explore various changes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the building control system and will also contain a significant deregulatory element and proposals to improve efficiency and safety of the technical Building Regulations.
The consultation will be presented in four sections;
Section one will outline the approach to the consultation and proposals to change various technical aspects of the regulations.
Section two will set out the proposals to increase the energy efficiency of buildings.
Section three puts forward proposals relating to electrical safety in homes.
Section four will include proposals to the building control system, including strengthening enforcement.
For commercial buildings there are two proposals for improving energy efficiency of new buildings, an aggregate of 11% over part L 2010 over all types of building and an aggregate of 20%. The governments preferred option is the 20% uplift.
Depending on the type of building, the 11% aggregate would see improvements ranging from 8 to 12% based on improvements to fabric and services efficiencies. A 20% improvement is thought to be achieved by a more challenging package of fabric and services improvements with the addition of a solar PV array of 1.6% of floor area. This would then mean that a high-rise building would have a greater percentage of its roof area covered with solar panels than a low-rise building with the same floor area.
Designers will not be forced to use PV, although it will be advocated that such renewable technologies are amongst the best ways to meet a 20% aggregate improvement.