ENERGY EFFICIENCY Extra
New homes must show 30 per cent cut in carbon emissions
» ALL NEW BUILDINGS must reduce their greenhouse gases by nearly a third under new building regulations which will come into force in June .
Under the rules , carbon emissions from new build homes must be 30 per cent lower than current standards and other new buildings such as offices and shops must be 27 per cent lower .
Housing minister Eddie Hughes said the regulations were an important step towards 2025 ’ s future homes and building standards where all new homes must be net-zero ready .
“ The changes will significantly improve the energy efficiency of the buildings where we live , work and spend our free time and are an important step on our country ’ s journey towards a cleaner , greener built environment .”
This means installing solar panels and heat pumps and improving insulation will be critical for achieving the new tougher requirements .
New homes , care homes , student accommodation and children ’ s homes , must be designed to reduce overheating . Improvements to ventilation will be introduced to support residents ’ safety in newly-built homes and to prevent airborne viruses from spreading in new non-residential buildings .
Government urged to keep it simple
The National Federation of Builders , NFB , said it supported higher standards but warned against changing the rules every few years . NFB head of housing and planning policy Rico Wotulewicz said : “ We ’ re encouraging our members to go higher than this interim standard as the 2025 future homes standard will move the goalposts again .”
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the 2025 future homes standard will move the goalposts again
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The trade body is critical of
new part S regulation leaving developers to pay for offsite grid work infrastructure so that new homes have electric vehicle chargers .
The Royal Institution of British Architects said the new rules had not gone far enough and should have included energy use regulation to force the built environment to decarbonise at the required rate . Meanwhile , brokers Hank Zarihs Associates said development finance lenders were keen to give construction loans to SME developers embracing innovation to make their buildings net-zero ready .
LETTER TO THE MEDIA
CLIMATE CHANGE : a message that ’ s resonating with consumers
» CLIMATE CHANGE HAS climbed to the top of the social , economic and political agenda through COP26 , the UN Climate Change Conference that was held in Glasgow from 31st October to the 12th of November 2021 . An agreement was agreed and announced by a tearful Alok Sharma , President for COP26 following stern disagreements in the final hours over the wording of an intention to abandon coal , which was watered down from a ‘ phase-out ’ to a ‘ phase-down .’ Limiting global warming to 1.5oC compared to pre-industrial levels was a key part of the 2015 Paris Agreement that most countries signed up to and this event was to build upon those promises made .
The Paris Agreement requires the cutting of global emissions by 45 % by 2030 and to zero overall by 2050 . It was hoped that an agreement in Glasgow would have fulfilled this target with a degree of confidence , but unfortunately this has not been achieved , nor may it be enough to limit global warming to 1.5oC . We are now faced with the fact that unless businesses and individuals put into place a change in the way in which we lead our lives , then dramatic climate change is inevitable .
To put that into perspective , scientists believe that a 2.0 ° C rise would decimate or possibly eliminate coral
reefs entirely , while rising sea waters would see some islands disappear of the global map and the likes of the Maldives , which is just 1.5m above sea level , are at risk .
As a £ multi-billion industry there ’ s much we can do and already we ’ ve become a business that has achieved a zero-landfill standard and we ’ re already planning forward as to how we can become CO 2 neutral well ahead of legislative and regulatory requirements in 2050 .
Whether an industry body will pick up and drive a programme of change management and commitment remains to be seen , but what we need to do is become better at how we manage the environment right now and it ’ s certainly a message that ’ s resonating with consumers .
Stephen Nadin Managing Director Endurance Doors
22 FEBRUARY 2022 CLEARVIEW-UK . COM