New Building Regulations Confirmed at LABC
At the national Local Authority Building Control (LABC) Conference, the Department for Local Government (DCLG) announced that the new Building Regulations were to be rubber-stamped by the Queen this week, coming into effect shortly afterwards. The move is part of the Coalition Government’s implementation of deregulation that will see the Code for Sustainable Homes, amongst others, absorbed into the Statutory Instrument of Building Regulations.
Invited to speak at the conference, Baca Director, Richard Coutts, observed: “What is clear from the Q&A session is there has been some restructuring, and from DCLG’s own comments, the new documents will take a bit of getting used to – in fact, they suggest reading the glossary first to understand the new definitions and terms so that guidance laid out in the documents makes full sense. The long-term objective is to provide a single, more simplified reference point for the building industry, which DCLG are reporting could save the construction industry up to £100million a year.”
During the conference, the Practice discussed the need to incorporate flood-resilient guidance and Buildings Regulations for floating domestic structures that are currently absent – perhaps in a new Part W or a subsection within the current statutory instrument.
Talks by LABC’s Rob Burridge (Warranty) highlighted some points to reduce latent defects in buildings for Designers, Engineers and Inspectors, with Richard Twine’s review of the new standards serving as a good wake-up call for the new changes that will arrive this April.
SITE COMING SOON
