Feature
Utilities the next big battleground for builders
For decades, the development industry has poured billions of pounds into the utility sector’ s coffers, not through choice but because they have been required to do so to gain a planning permission and make a development acceptable.
Yet the HBA’ s worst fears( and constant warning to Ministers and civil servants) are being realised as every utility sector is seeking to use a changing regulatory landscape to squeeze even more money from the development sector and cover decades of underinvestment.
Future Homes Standard( FHS) and electrification
Since EV charging came onto the scene, the HBA has been telling the Government that it must start to invest, or require District Network Operators( DNOs) to invest in grid reinforcement and upgrades.
We foresaw the likelihood that DNOs would be caught out by a sudden shift in electrification and the Government would not recognise the challenge. In 2020, our lobbying ensured that Part S of Building Regulations which covers EV chargers had a cost cap, Yet when attempting to do the same for the FHS requirement for new build to install solar panels, the Government did not agree.
Some of the new regulatory language may permit the solar panel element of Part L to be avoided or tweaked to not feed back into the grid and potentially avoid reinforcement costs and delays. However, this is still to be worked out and when utility companies are already identifying a need for more funding to ensure the grid can handle electrical loads.
More worrying is that the FHS has not accounted for higher loads on electric cooking and National Planning Policy Framework( NPPF) reforms have given councils greater powers to influence built environment outcomes relating to climate change.
This may mean embodied carbon regulations introduced to cover all manner of electrification related conditions, such as a requirement to install batteries, a provision for high-speed EV charging, three phase
Don’ t just accept it is part of the development process and instead, tell your trade federations and MP’ s about the higher costs, delays, new policies.”
connections and‘ renewable energy’ levies.
These planning conditions create a pathway for DNO’ s( which the Government may yet make a statutory consultee) for require more money for upgrades, or local plans will not be viable.
Water
The water industry is the sector most advanced in using planning to squeeze more from the development industry. Anglian water introduced a traffic light( RAG) document to highlight wastewater capacity challenges in specific localities and influence planning committee decisions.
‘ Red’ means no capacity,‘ amber’ introduces planning condition recommendations to alleviate challenges( some coming with delays of many years) and green means no issues. For a council who doesn’ t want homes, the RAG system provides a platform to reject or delay new housing, and while some councils push back on water companies, telling them it is their problems and they will permission an application( which forces water companies to provide connections), the Government is starting to step in and explore whether more can be done on site( via regulations) to stop surface water run off from getting into the waste-water system and for grey water re-use to be required.
Worst still, the idea has been floated that water companies become statutory consultees, which would embed planning delay.
The NPPF climate challenge
The National Planning Policy Framework( NPPF) could have been the document which pushed back against councils going outside of building regulation and planning policy and while some recent reforms will achieve that, the strengthening of climate resilience policy( on a individual site level, rather than strategic vision) creates a major challenge for development.
Embodied carbon, water use, pollution, electrification, zero-carbon, renewables and construction methods are on the table for individual LPA’ s to tweak( mess with). In the context of the utility sector this is a considerable problem because solving national challenges is impossible without national leadership and conviction, therefore without it, local government will feel they have an opportunity to prove to their electorate that they are leading on this debate.
Yet because they cannot affect changes where it really counts, the existing built environment, expect them to use the failings of the utility sector to their advantage and either squeeze every penny out of new build housing or stop it from coming forward at all.
Conclusion
A fight back is required at the micro level. Don’ t just accept it is part of the development process and instead, tell your trade federations and MP’ s about the higher costs, delays, new policies. Talk to your industry colleagues and the press. Gather as much information as you can because this challenges has been bubbling under the surface for several years and is drawing is many other policies as justification, from biodiversity net gain and net neutrality to active travel and climate resilience.
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