Building Regulation

Registered Social Landlords and Housing Associations are facing challenging times. With the increase in Local Authority housing targets, the need to build at speed is essential but compliance and safety combined with quality – are of equal importance.

With a 14-strong in-house team of designers and engineers, light steel frame specialists Frameclad are gearing up to meet the demands of the Future Homes Standard which comes into force next year. The more stringent regulations are designed to reduce carbon emission by 75-80% than homes delivered under current regulations.

voestalpine Metsec has become one of the earliest adopters of the Code for Construction Products Information (CCPI), introduced by the Construction Products Association in response to Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, set up following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

CCPI assessments are undertaken by Assessors from Construction Products Information Ltd. and are carried out on a manufacturer’s specific products and systems, not the company as a whole. As such, an organisation or brand cannot, in itself, gain assessment or make any claims of conformance beyond a specific product set.

Callum Thornton, the Fenestration Product Manager for SFS UK, explains why specifiers and property managers should consider continuity of insulation around window openings as a priority in both new build and retrofit situations.

Leading ventilation manufacturer Vent-Axia has welcomed the publication of the amended PAS 2035/2030:2023 which now aligns with Approved Document F (Means of Ventilation) of the Building Regulations. The British Standards Institution (BSI) has published an updated PAS 2035/2030:2023 document in light of the urgent need to decarbonise 27 million UK homes, the document describes how to conduct retrofits on existing dwellings to improve their energy efficiency. PAS 2035/2030:2023 sets out best practice in providing ‘whole house’ retrofits for domestic dwellings from project inception to handover and evaluation.

Leading British ventilation manufacturer, Vent-Axia, will showcase its latest continuous ventilation solutions at this year’s InstallerSHOW at the NEC, Birmingham (27-29 June 2023). Located in the BEAMA1 Village, visitors to Vent-Axia’s stand will be able to discover simple solutions designed to remove the risk to installers when retrofitting ventilation by ensuring compliance with the latest Part F (Means of Ventilation) of the Building Regulations. On show will be a range of continuous ventilation including Vent-Axia’s app-controlled Lo-Carbon Svara, its highly efficient Lo-Carbon NBR dMEV C, and the Vent-Axia PureAir Sense with odour sense technology.

The increased cost of living continues to highlight the need for energy-efficient social housing, leading to greater scrutiny of the thermal performance of building components in new and existing buildings. With legislation also continuing to tighten in the wake of the Future Homes Standard, Russell Hand, Head of Product Management and Technical at REHAU Windows, explains how implementing Passivhaus-informed performance criteria in window specification can ensure properties remain sustainable and efficient.

The state of UK housing is in a profound sense of flux. Rising energy costs are further underlining the need for thermally efficient homes, especially for older properties. This is especially a concern in social housing, as the majority was built between 1945 and 1980 . Consequently, pressure is on building specifiers to select thermally efficient components when retrofitting existing homes or building new developments.

With amended Part B (Fire Safety) of the Building Regulations coming into effect from 1st December 2022, fire protection solutions manufacturer, Advanced offers the ideal solution with its compliant evacuation alert system, EvacGo.

Published on 1st June 2022, the updated Part B of the Building Regulations has now made it mandatory for all new build residential buildings over 18m to have an evacuation alert system. An evacuation alert system is vital to help fire and rescue services inform residents of a change in evacuation strategy during an incident. This gives fire and rescue services an additional tool to use on the ground, alongside existing methods of evacuation, improving safety for residents.