Daily Telegraph - Blueprint For Disaster - the end
And the final element in the scenario for the potential Blueprint for Housing Development Disaster is an assumed ‘widespread non-compliance of environmental building regulations’.
Building Regulations were first brought in to ensure that building work is carried out to a standard that ensures the safety of both users and occupiers. As new construction techniques are adopted they need to be updated and adapted.
However partly to assuage this Government’s desire to regulate everything and also to apply the never-ending flow of regulations from the EU, the BRs are extended and added to every year.
The first part of this charge in the article is that 98% of builders (have they checked all builders? There are a lot out there) are failing to display Energy Performance Certificates on new homes.
Oh dear! This is critical in the safe construction of a new house.
Apparently one development where on paper the new houses met the new regulations for energy efficiency targets by fitting condensing boilers, they failed to do so because old fashioned conventional boilers had been installed.
This regulation only came into force during last year and it is possible that either the development was started before the regulation came into force or the purchasing department made a mistake. Nobody will be hurt and the properties have perfectly good boilers fitted that fully meet the standards in force only months earlier.
Next in a survey of 100 new homes since 2002 apparently nearly half failed Government standards for energy efficiency despite having been signed off by building inspectors.
It’s not a very large survey is it when you think that about 100,000 new homes are built each year? But the Association for the Conservation of Energy thinks it is ‘a huge problem’.
If there is a problem then it should be investigated properly to firstly establish the extent and then where the failings are occurring. If developers are deliberately flouting the regulations to save money then they should be prosecuted if for no other reason than to establish a level playing field of costs for the rest of the entirely law abiding builders.
However a slight pause in ever-tighter regulation might be of help firstly to question the cost benefit both to the economy and the environment.
Stay tuned to Property Fortunes…
Building Regulations were first brought in to ensure that building work is carried out to a standard that ensures the safety of both users and occupiers. As new construction techniques are adopted they need to be updated and adapted.
However partly to assuage this Government’s desire to regulate everything and also to apply the never-ending flow of regulations from the EU, the BRs are extended and added to every year.
The first part of this charge in the article is that 98% of builders (have they checked all builders? There are a lot out there) are failing to display Energy Performance Certificates on new homes.
Oh dear! This is critical in the safe construction of a new house.
Apparently one development where on paper the new houses met the new regulations for energy efficiency targets by fitting condensing boilers, they failed to do so because old fashioned conventional boilers had been installed.
This regulation only came into force during last year and it is possible that either the development was started before the regulation came into force or the purchasing department made a mistake. Nobody will be hurt and the properties have perfectly good boilers fitted that fully meet the standards in force only months earlier.
Next in a survey of 100 new homes since 2002 apparently nearly half failed Government standards for energy efficiency despite having been signed off by building inspectors.
It’s not a very large survey is it when you think that about 100,000 new homes are built each year? But the Association for the Conservation of Energy thinks it is ‘a huge problem’.
If there is a problem then it should be investigated properly to firstly establish the extent and then where the failings are occurring. If developers are deliberately flouting the regulations to save money then they should be prosecuted if for no other reason than to establish a level playing field of costs for the rest of the entirely law abiding builders.
However a slight pause in ever-tighter regulation might be of help firstly to question the cost benefit both to the economy and the environment.
Stay tuned to Property Fortunes…
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