Whilst my day to day job is mainly spent helping builders to comply with the building regulations I am also spending a significant amount of time on a couple of major issues which are shaping the future of two important areas of the building regulations.
The first is aptly named ‘Fire Futures’ and concerns the future direction of Fire UK. The Fire Futures review was announced by the Fire Minister shortly after the coalition Government came to power and asked all those involved in Fire UK to comment on how the whole fire industry could adapt, modernise and move forward in the current political and environmental conditions.
The Building Control Alliance has been involved in the review as part of the Built Environment Group and whilst the report which went to the Minister said that the present regulations in respect of fire safety were adequate, the understanding of them by the construction industry as a whole was lacking. I can certainly sympathise with this conclusion and as a Building Control professional it is part of my role to work with builders to help their understanding of the regulations.
Since the final report went to the Minister, various parties involved in Fire UK have formed the Fire Sector Partnership, a body which constitutes the wider fire industry including trade associations, manufacturers, unions etc and is a key member the Building Control Alliance.
The aim of the body is to act as a single voice addressing pan-industry issues and increasing the profile of fire safety within the built environment and other areas. Work on the aims of the partnership is in its infancy but as a professional in the construction industry I think that a single voice addressing fi re related issues is a good thing.
PART L REVIEW
The second area demanding a lot of my time is the review of Part L for 2013, (yes, 2013) a little over six months since the implementation of the 2010 regulations and we are already well ahead on planning for the next revisions in just over two years time.
The next changes will move us closer towards the Government’s stated aim of zero carbon homes by 2016 and other buildings by 2019. The work that is currently being undertaken is around the performance of the current regulations and also what we can be expected to reasonably do in 2013. There is a lot of focus on how do we actually prove that the buildings that we are building actually perform as we have designed them and this is something that the Building Regulations Minister, Andrew Stunnell, is very interested in. At present we have very limited data on how completed homes perform against their predicted performance calculated through SAP. I am not normally a betting man, but I wouldn’t mind a few pounds on the likelyhood of some form of pre-occupation testing appearing for new homes appearing in the 2013 regulations.
Work is furiously proceeding on possible options for changes and it is planned to have a consultation document on Part L 2013 by the end of this year. As with the Fire Sector Partnership, the Building Control Alliance is closely involved in this work and I will continue to feedback to you on various aspects of this work as it proceeds.
PART L 2010 TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS
For those of you who submitted an Initial Notice prior to the implementation of the Part L, F & J changes on October 1 2010, you have until 30 September 2011 to record a site start and ensure that the planned work is covered by the previous regulations. Work commencing on or after 1 October 2011 will be subject to the 2010 regulations.
