INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER 27
INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER A Year On: Progress on Part L, F & O
Executive summary In June 2023, the new Building Regulations Parts L and F (covering
energy effi ciency and ventilation respectively), as well as a new Regulation mitigating consequent overheating in residential projects (Part O), were introduced as mandatory requirements. The industry was given a year’s run up to this deadline, as although the Regulations were introduced in June 2022, schemes which had submitted planning by that stage didn’t need to adhere to the new, more stringent requirements for built fabric and effi ciency generally. The requirements are somewhat onerous for many in the industry, with the new Part L mandating a 31% reduction in the carbon emissions of new homes built (on 2013’s Part L), but that can be achieved by using a mixture of fabric and renewable heating upgrades to previous specifi cations, according to individual design teams’ needs. However, according to some commentators in the design industry, the new Part L requirements on fabric-led energy effi ciency did not go far enough, particularly given that they were a stepping stone to the imminent 75%-80% reductions required by the Future Homes Standard, planned to be introduced in 2025. Many have cited the fact the GLA requires new housing developments across London to achieve 35% more carbon reductions than Part L 2021, so arguably the 31% should be regarded as a moderate improvement. Part F (covering ventilation) was also updated, to ensure that the ramifi cations of much more air-tight homes is mitigated by appropriate levels of ventilation to avoid health risks from moisture, mould and other pollutants such as carbon monoxide. This ties into the momentum created in tackling existing social housing by Awaab’s Law, passed following the 2020 death of two- year old Awaab Ishak in a housing association fl at in Rochdale, due to mould blamed on poor ventilation.
There are a host of challenges for designers and contractors in order to bring mainstream house designs up to this kind of level of performance, not least the ways to adopt energy-effi cient designs
which do not drastically change their appearance for customers, such as via reduced window sizes.
As the industry confronted the June 2023 deadline for the tighter standards becoming mandatory (alongside the new Part O), we surveyed architects to test their perceptions, largely focusing on new build issues. We discovered a wide range of responses from these practitioners, the majority of whom were involved in new housing developments. Some of the fi ndings confi rmed expectations, however others were more surprising. We wanted to fi nd out their understanding of, as well as opinions
on, the new changes, their views on how relevant they are to architects, and the design approaches they are already taking to meet the new Approved Documents L, F and O. We not only looked at their attitudes towards the challenges and benefi ts of solutions for new homes, but also for the non-domestic sector. We were also delighted to be able to include the ‘Expert View’ comments of architect Chris Perry, from TODD Architects.
Introduction
In February 2023 we surveyed architects on their knowledge of and approach to the updated Building Regulations Parts L, F and O (the latter being the new standard on overheating in new dwellings). The results gave pointers as to the industry’s readiness to tackle the Future Buildings Standard (FBS) and Future Homes Standard (FHS), due to be implemented in 2025, which the Regs updates provide staging posts towards.
As well as looking at our respondents’ views on the changes for specifi cation, such as building fabric, we established which solutions architects were specifying to meet the new Regulations on their projects. A year on from the original study, we again canvassed readers on their experience, to fi nd out how the standards are functioning and what has changed, but also discover their remaining issues, and views on the challenges upcoming in 2025. We were therefore able to track progress
ADF MARCH 2024
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