Recent changes to the Building Regulations

Changes to the Building Regulations are now in force following the Hackitt enquiry into the role of the Building Regulations and Fire Safety in response to the Grenfell Disaster.  These include some major changes to the way the Building Regulations are administrated and enforced with higher risk buildings (HRB's) now coming under a new body, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) run by the HSE. HRB's are defined as buildings at least 18m tall or at least 7 storeys, containing at least 2 residential units. Synergy Architectural Solutions do not get involved in projects that include HRB's so we will not go into any details here. All other types of construction work will continue to be administered by LABC or Approved Inspectors.

All Building Control Officers are being asked to prove their competence through approved schemes and exams, putting major pressure on the LABC across England & Wales.

The new regulations have introduced the roles of Principal Designer and Principal Contractor within the Building Regulations, which is going to cause some headaches until the new regulations have bedded in and are fully understood. These roles have been around under the CDM Regulations for some time but the way they have been introduced under the Building Regulations will create difficulties for many designers. There are also new obligations for clients to ensure that they appoint competent designers and contractors to undertake projects.

The new Approved Document O - Overheating is also causing some issues. The requirement for ventilation to mitigate overheating in dwellings can be more onerous than that required under Approved Document F - Ventilation. Window sizes and openings may have to be changed to achieve compliance, which could present a planning problem. The calculations under AD 'O' are also orientation sensitive, so a house type facing north may be shown to comply but the same house type facing south might fail. Calculations are now needed to show compliance. A simple calculation may be sufficient but if the design includes a high level of glazing, dynamic thermal modelling may be required. This can only be undertaken by suitably qualified people using specialist software. As this is still in its infancy, it is likely to be add additional expense for clients with relatively few practitioners providing it. Synergy Architectural Solutions do not currently offer this type of calculation to demonstrate compliance.