Look out for the consultation on a code for sustainable non-dwellings and a shake-up of building control

What is going to hit the industry on the regulations front in 2008? Well there is quite a bit in the pipeline. At some point we should see a formal consultation on a code for sustainable non-dwellings, which could be based around the UK Green Building Council’s report on this topic which has just been published.

That should cause an even bigger stir than 2007’s Code for Sustainable Homes. Not that the fuss surrounding the domestic code is going to go away, the debate over onsite versus offsite renewables will continue to rage.

More big ripples could flow from the publication of the communities department proposals for the future of building control. “That has the potential to much more significant than most people realise,” says John Tebbit, the industry affairs director of the Construction Products Association. This could change the way building control functions, and importantly how the regulations work too – for example more predictability of when changes are going to occur.

The draft approved document for Part G – the water efficiency regulations should be published and we should also see the updated version of SAP published which will be used for calculating the energy efficiency of homes from 2010 to 2016.

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