BUILDING REGULATIONS CHANGES IN 2022: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Important new Building Regs changes will impact new homes and some existing homes from June this year.

Taking effect from 15th June 2022 there will be 5 new Building Regulation Approved Documents that new and existing Dwellings and Non-Domestic Buildings may be required to follow in their design. Although we say new regulations technically four of them are updates to existing guidelines, with one of them being an entirely new Approved Document.

New homes will have to produce around 30% fewer carbon emissions from 2022, as part of a major update to the Building Regulations.

The significant update provides an uplift to existing energy efficiency standards for homes and marks a stepping stone towards the introduction of the Future Homes Standard in 2025.

The new Building Regulations comprise five new Approved Documents, including uplifts to Part L (fuel and power) and Part F (ventilation), which will come into effect from 15 June 2022 and will have a marked impact on new homes and existing homes. 

What are Building Regulations?

Building Regulations establish a set of technical standards for the design and construction of buildings. If you're building something new or making big changes to an existing building, it is likely that you will need to comply with Building Regulations.

Building Control Bodies will enforce these regulations to ensure that compliance is achieved.

What’s Been Announced?

The Building Regulations changes come with £6.6 billion of direct investment into improving the energy efficiency of buildings, the government says. And the announcements impact both new homes and existing homes. 

New homes

• There will be a 30% cut on emissions from new homes, as well as a 27% cut on new buildings including offices and shops 
• An entirely new Building Regulation and Approved Document O has been set up to mitigate the risk of overheating in new homes. One key inclusion is that maximum limits to the amount of glazing will be set on new residential buildings
• New homes will adopt the Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard to measure energy efficiency
• There will be a maximum flow temperature requirement of 55°C for new and replacement heating systems, as part of the Part L uplift
• An appendix has been included in Part L which sets out a good practice specification for a home built with a heat pump.

Existing homes

• Uplifts to Part L & Part F of the Building Regulations have set new minimum standards for fabric efficiency. For example, there will be a new efficiency metric for the whole house calculation method for new extensions 
• There will be a requirement for new or replacement heating system designs to accept low-carbon heating in the future, including integrating the latest Ecodesign appliance benchmarks.

A transition period will now commence until June 2022, when the new regulations will come into effect, which is designed to allow for planning applications that are currently in progress.

The government also published Approved Document S, which provides technical guidance regarding the installation of electric car charge points in our homes.

What does this mean?

Individuals responsible and involved with new build construction will have some time until they will need to comply with these new regulations, which will be enforced from 15th June 2022. This means that any Building Regulation applications received after this date will need to adhere to the new regulations published today.

Future Homes Standard Latest

The changes to the Building Regulations were published alongside the government’s response to the second Future Homes Standard consultation (called the Future Buildings Standard) from earlier this year.

As part of the response, it was confirmed that in 2023 a full technical consultation for the launch of the Future Buildings Standard will begin, ahead of the Standard's introduction in 2025.

Moreover, any new homes built after 2025 will not require further energy efficiency retrofit work to become zero-carbon as the electricity grid continues to decarbonise. So if you have any budget-conscious projects we suggest that you look at making a planning application sooner rather than later. If you require a daylight and sunlight assessment, Energy and Sustainability Statement, or any other thermal modeling services for your planning application then please just get in touch with us. Property Contractors 247 will provide all the services needed for your new home builds.