AECB News

The Future Homes Standard: changes to Part L and Part F of the Building Regulations for new dwellings

20 December 2019 by

Summary
Consultation on the uplift to standards of Part L of the Building Regulations and changes to Part F.
This uplift is the first step in achieving the Future Homes Standards.

Consultation description


This consultation sets out government plans for the Future Homes Standard, including proposed options to increase the energy efficiency requirements for new homes in 2020. The Future Homes Standard will require new build homes to be future-proofed with low carbon heating and world-leading levels of energy efficiency; it will be introduced by 2025.

This document is the first stage of a two-part consultation about proposed changes to the Building Regulations. It also covers the wider impacts of Part L for new homes, including changes to Part F (ventilation), its associated Approved Document guidance, airtightness and improving as-built performance of the constructed home.

Supporting documents:

Key issues with the proposed consultation
1. Fabric performance is likely to get worse. A home in 2020 could be less insulated than a home under 2013 Building Regulations. The use of an energy efficient heating system has the ability to mask fabric performance.
2. Carbon and primary energy factors disguise the energy efficiency of a home. The energy consumption of a home can be high but carbon emissions low. This leads to inefficient homes which appear to be performing well.
3. Local authorities will lose the ability to meet their climate emergency zero carbon commitments if they are stripped of their powers to go above and beyond the new Part L

What can you do?

Watch the AECB Webinar with Andy Simmonds & Will South

LETI (the London Energy Transformation Initiative) have many resources to help people reply: They have template answers for each question of the consultation, letter templates to go to MP’s and much more. This make responding to the consultation very easy and we urge you to submit a response to this. Many of our AECB members and partners have been involved in submitting responses and working on combined responses. The AECB has signed as a signatory on the LETI website and we would urge you to do the same or submit your own.

Visit the LETI page

You can also checkout the government main page on the consultation here

Visit Gov.uk consultation web page

Additional Resources and responses

We will try to keep adding resources to this list but please email us if you would like to be added or know of a useful resource not listed below.

Closing Date 11:45pm on 7 February 2020