News analysis with BESA This time they are serious
A raft of new regulatory measures and the appointment of a products regulator, alongside stricter rules on payment, demonstrates just how serious the government is about reforming the built environment sector, according to the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA)
this year will have to achieve a 31% reduction in carbon footprint compared with the levels set in 2013 by the last revision of the building regulations.
Extensions T
he Association’s chief executive David Frise (pictured above) believes developments since the start of the year should dispel any lingering doubts that the Government means business when calling for root and branch reform of the construction industry and its supply chains. “The industry has a history of ‘seeing off’ previous attempts at reform going back several decades, but this time it feels very different,” he says. “The appointment of a building products regulator has added to the pace of change set by the Hackitt Review. The Cabinet Office has also considerably tightened rules around late payment to try and relieve some of the pressure on supply chains.”
The Future Homes Standard has evolved into a Future Buildings Standard and the Government’s response to the consultation responses it received includes ambitious new performance targets for both residential and commercial buildings from 2025. Significantly, the new standard includes plans for non-domestic buildings to be subject to improved ventilation requirements and monitoring of indoor air quality (IAQ) to make them better equipped to deal with future health challenges as a result of lessons learned during the current pandemic. New homes will be required to achieve 75-80% lower carbon emissions than current levels and be “zero carbon ready” by 2025; and even homes built
Existing homes will also be targeted. Any extensions or major repairs will have to meet a number of low carbon targets including improvements to windows and insulation as well as the installation of heat pumps and other energy efficient technologies. These are all part of “interim” building regulations designed to help the industry prepare for the 2025 regime. “The implications for the building engineering sector are profound,” says Mr Frise. “The role of mechanical ventilation is now getting the recognition it deserves. The new regulations will specifically focus on improving air change rates in all types of buildings while also insisting on the use of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery systems in homes to ensure good air quality can be achieved without driving up energy use.”
The standard, which is being developed in tandem with revisions to Parts F and L of the building regulations, will also set out to tackle the growing problem of buildings overheating. This will be one of the sector’s key challenges in the years and decades ahead. It is responsible for almost 2,000 deaths every year in the UK, which is expected to rise to over 7,000 by the middle of this century due to climate change, according to government figures.
In responding to the consultation findings, the Government noted the need for additional cooling capacity, ventilation and indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring in high-risk commercial buildings such
!" February 2021
www.heatingandventilating.net
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