What will happen to the Code for Sustainable Homes and how might it affect joinery manufacturers?

The UK government has pledged to simplify the planning and building process by updating the current Building Regulations and cutting the red tape involved in the planning and building of new homes.

Housebuilders have long argued that the multitude of standards and regulations that can be mandated by planners and Local Authority for inclusion within housing schemes has been presenting barriers for development and increasing the cost for projects, thus making them unviable and difficult to deliver on. The current housing crisis and challenging economic conditions in recent years have allowed this argument to gain some momentum.

One of these standards is the Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH).

Launched with the aim of cutting the aforementioned ‘red tape’, the Housing Standards review was divided into different sections for review; water, space, energy, security, accessibility and process and compliance. Now that the review has taken place, the policy appears set that some of these standards will be incorporated into Building Regulations and others will effectively be scrapped.

One of the sections of the review that could impact a number of BWF Members is energy as we have had confirmation that the CSH will not be included into the updated Building Regulations, so in essence it is to be scrapped.  A Construction Products Association (CPA) meeting which BWF attended at the British Board of Agrément, saw the proposal to form a working group which could produce a PAS document. The document would detail the methods involved in producing a highly energy efficient property. The CPA was forceful in declaring that this is not redefining ‘good’, it is merely specifying the method to follow if housebuilders want to voluntarily conform to homes that are in the upper echelon of energy efficiency.

The key word here is voluntary. Local authorities and planners will not have to conform to these standards as adhering to them will only be voluntary. For purely financial reasons, one must ask, what housebuilder is going to go to the added cost and effort of building a property that conforms to higher standards if they don’t need to?

The issue is that some joinery manufacturers have invested heavily in developing products that are highly energy efficient with the aim of these products being specified for inclusion within projects that are being built to Levels 4, 5 and 6 of the CSH.

So where does that leave BWF members who have developed, tested and are manufacturing windows to higher standards?   In the short term we can expect confusion from customers and planning representatives, involving the standards that need to be achieved on products that are currently in process.

In the long term we must hope for a boom in house building that the house builders have pinned their argument on with the knock on affects felt by the joinery industry. Regarding  energy efficiency, government targets to implement Zero Carbon Homes is still on the agenda, however we wait in anticipation as to whether this is included in the Queens Speech (June 2014) to understand the extent that this will be enforced.   However, the Housing Standards Review is a hot topic and moving fast, our members need to keep up to date with information and ensure that they are fully equipped to be able to communicate with planners / builders and customers on a technical level.  We will be releasing further information as it becomes public, however in the meantime please contact the BWF Technical Team for further assistance.