Policy & Regulations

The Future Homes Standard will be in place in the UK by 2025, mandating the transition to low-carbon heating and future-proofing homes so they can become zero carbon.

The UK government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has opened two consultations relating to proposed changes to the Building Safety Act 2022 in England.
The first consultation concerns the new safety regime for occupied higher-risk buildings – defined as those buildings which contain at least two residential units and are at least 18m in height or at least seven storeys – and covers proposed changes to building regulations under part 4 of the Building Safety Act.

Working Group 7 invites the industry to take part in a consultation on the new Competence Framework for designers in the Built Environment industries.

DLUCH has published two new consultations, which form part of a series of consultations that will provide further detail on how the Building Safety Act 2022 (England) will work in practice.

The Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE) has launched new industry update courses focusing on the changes to Approved Documents F, L, O, and S in England.

The Great Mosque of Algiers, the world’s third-largest mosque, wins an International Architecture Award 2021

In addition to the updated Building Regulations technical guidance, to improve the energy and emissions performance standards for new buildings that came into effect on 30 June 2022, Northern Ireland has introduced a new register for Regulation of Providers of Building Works and Building Control (Amendment) Bill 2022.

Amendments to the Building Regulations (amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2022 (WGC 003/2022) and Approved Documents L1, F1 and O for Wales have been released.

Polymer supplier REHAU’s new Designing Healthy Healthcare guide explores the challenges and opportunities for contractors and specifiers involved in building healthcare environments, including hospitals, doctors’ surgeries and care homes.

Improvements to fire safety guidance in England were announced in June, and form part of a wider update to tighten building regulations and provide clearer fire safety rules for the design or construction of residential developments.

The Welsh Government has released the new version of the Building Regulations and Approved Documents following a lengthy consultation period.

Robust reforms to fire safety have been announced by Priti Patel to strengthen fire and rescue services, putting the majority of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendations into law.

The Construction Industry Council has opened a consultation to review its Code of Conduct for Approved Inspectors.

Government draft regulations could see mandatory electrical safety checks for England’s social housing.

The New Homes Quality Board (NHQB) has published a code of practice for the housebuilding industry and is working to oversee the creation of the New Homes Ombudsman Service to provide “robust independent redress” for new build buyers who have “issues with their new home or developer”.

Northern Ireland Finance Minister Conor Murphy (pictured, right) has announced changes to building regulations, which make Changing Places toilets a requirement in buildings commonly used by the public. The statutory guidance will apply to certain types of new buildings or existing ones where there is a material change of use. It will come into effect on 30 June 2022

Chris Miles, Regional Business Director for UL’s Built Environment group in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), looks at the post-Brexit overhaul of product marking and certification now under way

The UK Government has taken note of concerns raised by leaseholders about the structure of the future safety regime outlined in the Building Safety Bill and is removing the duty to appoint a Build-ing Safety Manager (BSM).

The term competence recurs in building safety reports and new regulations, but what does it really mean in practice, and how will building industry professionals fair under the renewed scrutiny?

After months of debate and amendments, the Building Safety Bill became law today (29 April), with the intention to ‘create lasting generational change’ to the way high-risk and residential buildings are constructed and maintained, although many of the new provisions in the 262-page Act are not expected to come into force until 2023.