The present building regulations are devised to favour private developers with much support for by local authorities, their planning departments and committees, with very little thought to the buyer unless in the luxury bracket and least of all to tenants only able to rent. A standard on quality, design, size , and how it fits within the character of an area should be drafted in all new buildings, and likewise older buildings that need to be brought up to the Decent Homes Standards. There should also be local residents involvement in these decisions to verify their best interests and not only of developers and landlords where priorities differ.
I started out using Ecohomes which was simple and straightforward.
When this developed into the Code for Sustainable Homes it became much more cumbersome to use, and was plagued by detail and complexity.
I have achieved post contract certification for 19 houses in York,( Code Level 5) but it was a painful process, because the evidence was very difficult to extract from the contractor and the BRE were pedantic to the extreme.
I agree that , as there is no provision for post occupation feedback, the value of the excercise is diminished.
The present building regulations are devised to favour private developers with much support for by local authorities, their planning departments and committees, with very little thought to the buyer unless in the luxury bracket and least of all to tenants only able to rent. A standard on quality, design, size , and how it fits within the character of an area should be drafted in all new buildings, and likewise older buildings that need to be brought up to the Decent Homes Standards. There should also be local residents involvement in these decisions to verify their best interests and not only of developers and landlords where priorities differ.
I started out using Ecohomes which was simple and straightforward.
When this developed into the Code for Sustainable Homes it became much more cumbersome to use, and was plagued by detail and complexity.
I have achieved post contract certification for 19 houses in York,( Code Level 5) but it was a painful process, because the evidence was very difficult to extract from the contractor and the BRE were pedantic to the extreme.
I agree that , as there is no provision for post occupation feedback, the value of the excercise is diminished.