Part L is being amended and is due to come into force on 6th October 2010. Many of the changes aim to more clearly distinguish “Requirements” from “Guidance”.

There are also a number of changes, the main ones being:
Design Submissions to be a requirement (in the Regulations) as well as As Built Submissions
No change to the methodology for calculating the TER beyond the 25% reduction in the target.
The guidance proposes a “strategic sequence” for meeting the TER target
Builders to be able to get lower DERs if they adopt procedures that provide more quality assurance e.g. Air Permeability (more pressure testing), Thermal Bridges.
Design Limits for Building Fabric – no changes.
Design Limits for Building Services - expanded to cover micro-generation of heat and electricity.
Clearer rules for air permeability assessment at the As Built stage, involving more pressure testing.
Thermal bridging – 25% to be added on to calculated values if accredited details not used
Party Walls – no longer assumed to have a U value of 0.0 W/m2K; value depends upon construction.
Conservatories – exemption for conservatories of less than 30 m2 to be removed.

We’ll get some seminars organised when they are available.

Housing minister John Healey said the fee freeze would save developers £23 million this year, money which can be reinvested into new projects that will sustain the UK construction sector through what is predicted to be a stale year for the economy.

Announcing the freeze, Healey said: ‘At a time when investing in new developments is difficult, and when access to funding is hard, it would be wrong to increase the costs of developers who will help drive economic recovery.

‘I recognise that as we start to work through economic recovery, we need to do what we can to keep builders on construction sites and keep plans on the table.

‘It is important that we react to the economic circumstances and listen to the needs of people, industry and developers and we have done just that.’

From the Architects Journal 21 January 2010.

Approved Document G (Hygiene)

The new Part G (Hygiene) finally comes into force on the 6th April 2010 after being delayed from an original introduction on 1st October 2009.

The main points are; Changes to cold water supply requirements, hot water safety and the introduction of a new provision relating to water efficiency in new dwellings. See link here.

For those of you looking for guidance as designers with regard to safe access for maintenance and repair, I would recommend the latest CIRIA Document C686 “Safe Access for Maintenance & Repair” downloadable from the IHS information service. Chapter 2 is particularly useful, giving indicative guidance in making decisions in respect of working at height.

You should also be aware of other useful CIRIA guidance ( also available through our information service) as follows:

CIRIA C604 CDM Regulations – Work sector guidance for designers

CIRIA C662 - CDM2007 Construction work sector guidance for designers

CIRIA C663 - CDM2007 Workplace in-use guidance for designers

The Workplace in-use guidance is particularly of interest, and reminds us that as designers we need to ensure that hazards & risks are considered for the workplaces included in our designs, also ensuring compliance with the Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992.

Turley Associates, with whom we work on planning matters, attended a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference this week, hosted by Lexington Communications. The guest speaker was Bob Neill MP, the Shadow Minister for Local Government and Planning. Following various announcements and comments in the press by Party members, he provided an update on how the Conservative Party intends to approach the planning system, should it gain power at the next election. This approach has potentially wide-ranging implications for the development industry.

• Neill confirmed that the planning system is likely to see further change, to refocus its operation to accord with the Conservative “localism” agenda
• As previously announced by the party, Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) would be abolished, removing strategic development and land requirements with the intention that these be determined locally
• The requirement for a 5 year supply of housing land would be retained, although the Party will offer clarification on how this calculation should be undertaken to ensure consistency. How the local requirement would be decided, in the absence of Regional guidance, was not addressed
• Local development would be incentivised through a commitment to Local Authorities that any development in their area would produce direct funding through the retention of Council Tax (at 100% for open market housing and 125% for affordable housing) and business rates (at 100%) at a local level, for a period of 6 years. This would replace central funding as a direct incentive for allowing and encouraging development in the area. The funds would not be ring-fenced
• There was no mention of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)
• The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) would also abolished, to be replaced with a system based around the existing Planning Inspectorate and Ministerial control
• National Planning Statements (NPS’s) would be retained as a clear statement to help guide nationally significant projects, and to provide political accountability for major decisions. The agenda of reducing delays in the provision of major infrastructure would be retained
• Reducing delays would also be a wider theme in the new system, with the suggestion being made that sanctions may be introduced for key Statutory Consultees (Highways Agency, Environment Agency, etc) who unnecessarily or unduly delay planning applications
• A commitment was made to retain the elements of the system that work and to further examine how smaller-scale applications can be removed from Planning Officer’s schedules, to allow them to focus on important schemes where their skills are needed
• Finally, the assurance was given that transitional arrangements would be put in place to make sure that further delays would not result from the changes being set out
  

More than 40 locations are being considered as sites for new homes to ease a shortage of affordable housing in the Yorkshire Dales.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) received 118 suggestions of potential sites after an appeal to landowners. It has drawn up a shortlist of 44, which are now being investigated. The YDNPA said the response to its appeal had been “very good” but it wanted more suggestions. It specifically wants to hear about potential sites in the Grassington, Hawes, Reeth and Sedbergh areas. The YDNPA’s housing working group will eventually draw up a draft housing development plan which will go out to public consultation.

Housing officer Peter Stockton said: “The final list will depend on the response from technical consultees like the highways authority, the Environment Agency, our archaeologists and ecologists.

“It will probably be a lot shorter than the 40 or so sites currently going for further investigation.”

When it made its appeal to landowners in January, the YDNPA said the lack of affordable housing in the national park was a “serious problem”.

It said local people were being forced out of the area because of high house prices.

From BBC News Website 28 September 2009

The housing industry and architects have welcomed the London Housing Design Guide, published last week by London mayor Boris Johnson’s office, despite some feeling that new proposals on space standards do not go far enough.

Read more in the AJ online article by Christopher Sell.

I’m sure you all know we subscribe to IHS to provide us with access to the latest British Standards, Building Regulations, Health Technical Memoranda etc. If you have not looked follow this link http://uk.ihs.com/

Our user Log in is phsa and I’m sure a team member will give you the password!

Having just renewed our subscription we have been given the data on just how often it has been used.
Back in April of this year for example The Construction Information Service was accessed 66 times which as expected our far biggest use of the portal. Specify-it being the next highest accessed at 7 times last December.

Overall we have accessed it 589 times in the year, and viewed 1113 documents.

I’m sure most of us are aware, however just incase BS 8300:2001 (Design of buildings and their approaches to disabled people - code of practice) has been revised to BS 8300 :2009. 

Amendments include:

• The recommendations on steps, stairs and handrails reflect those in BS 5395-1.
• There has been a relaxation of the recommendations on the provision of vision panels in doors, and more detailed information is given on the location and design of door opening and closing furniture.
•  More information is now provided on means of escape and references are made to BS 9999.
•  An increased percentage of accessible bedrooms is now recommended.
•  New subclauses have been included on accessible baby changing facilities and Changing Places sanitary accommodation.
•  Information on achieving sufficient visual contrast has been revised and included in a new annex that makes reference to BS 8493 on the measurement of light reflectance values.
• A new annex on slip resistance has been included, drawing on guidance issued by BRE and CIRIA.

These however are not exhuastive and reference should be made to the document itself online through The Construction Information Service.

The Department of Health has reinforced its position on bed space standards for in-patient accommodation to combat hospital acquired infections.

Bed spaces width is 3.6m to provide suffucient space for clinical activities, meet manual handling requirements including hoists, meet disability access requirements including wheelchairs and provide a suitable environment for privacy and dignity. Refer to HFN 30 - Infection Controlin the Built Environment. The standards relate both to new build and to major reconfiguration schemes.

Breaches of health and safety could lead to imprisonment, a top law firm has warned

The Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 comes into effect today (16 January 2009).
See complete article in the Architects Journal here.

Author: Kaye Alexander.

English Partnerships’ standards were revised in November, reintroducing minimum space standards for new homes on their sites.  These standards go beyond the old Parker Morris standards of the 1960’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Morris_Committee).  New housing projects for English Partnerships’ sites will require dwellings to be a minimum of 51m2 for a 1 bed, rising to a minimum of 106m2 for a 4 bed (6 person) home.

England and Wales are the only countries in Europe with no minimum space standards for new housing.

The vast majority of private and public sector schemes we undertake will not require these standards but there is some useful design guidance on layout, storage etc on this imaginatively-titled website: www.swingacat.info

The government published its new Housing and Regeneration Bill today, which will facilitate the prime minister’s housing targets.

One of Gordon Brown’s key policies since coming into power has been his promise to deliver three million new homes by 2020. Today’s Bill will help make this possible, and aid the delivery of the required 240,000 new homes a year by 2016.

The Bill will also create the new Homes and Community Agency, which has seen the merger of English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.

This new agency will deliver more affordable housing, both social and private, by bringing together the two separate land and housing agencies.

It will also facilitate the government’s plans to provide 10 new eco towns, the locations of which are expected to be unveiled in February.

Richard Vaughan Architects Journal 16 November 2007

The ‘draft’ guidance for LPAs represents a coherent approach. It demonstrates how the info required to process an application has ballooned over recent years and the concomitant need for a host of specialist inputs. 

It introduces another delay in the introduction of the national application form which will be obligatory for online and written applications from 6 April 2008 (delayed this time from 1st October 2007). The new form is to be used for any of the following: 

Householder consents 

• Outline and full planning permission and approval of reserved matters 
• Listed Building consent 
• Conservation Area consent 
• Advertisement consent 
• Consent under Tree Preservation Orders 
• Lawful Development Certificates 
• Applications for Prior Notification under the General Permitted 

Development Order 1995 

• Removal or variation of conditions. 

The Guidance provides a different selection of items for each type of application covered by the national form. For a planning application this is the list: 

• Affordable housing statement 
• Air quality 
• Biodiversity survey and report 
• Conservation Area appraisal 
• Daylight/sunlight assessment 
• Environmental Impact Assessment 
• Evidence to accompany applications for town centre uses 
• Existing and proposed car parking and access arrangements 
• Flood risk assessment 
• Foul sewerage assessment 
• Heritage Statement (including historical, archaeological features and 
• Scheduled Ancient Monuments) 
• Impact assessment 
• Land contamination assessment 
• Landfill statement 
• Lighting assessment 
• Noise impact assessment 
• Open space assessment 
• Other plans (3 copies to be supplied unless the application is submitted electronically. All plans and drawings should include: paper size, key dimensions and scale bar indicating a minimum of 0-10 metres) 
• Photographs/photomontages 
• Planning obligations/draft Head(s) of Terms 
• Planning Statement 
• Regeneration statement 
• Statement of Community Involvement 
• Structural Survey 
• Transport assessment 
• (Draft) travel plan 
• Tree survey/Arboricultural implications 
• Utilities statement 
• Ventilation/extraction statement 
• Site waste management plan (including relevant refuse disposal details). 

See www.communities.gov.uk

The above is taken from a circulated letter from the ACA on validation of planning applications. It pays to check with the LPA but the requirements are becoming more onerous.

Pre-application consultation with planning officers which aim at agreement as to what is required to validate the proposed application will be essential in most cases. If the authority insists on charging a fee for these, such fee should be deductible from the [imminently to be further increased] application fee and not be in addition to it. This is a point to be emphasised in responding to local consultations on the proposed local requirements.