The Government announced in October that it hopes to launch the voluntary code for sustainable homes before the end of the year. Here Simon Barnes of DCLG’s Buildings Division outlines what will be in it and its likely effects

The Code for Sustainable Homes is aimed at giving home owners a comparative standard. It is set to be highly influential as it will drive Building Regulations and could cover existing homes and new buildings.

According to Simon Barnes DCLG, the main drivers to the Code are:

• New direction of Building Standards
• Future direction of Building Regulations
• Rising Energy Costs
• Security of Supply of Energy
• Water
• Landfill tax / Availability of landfill sites
• Cost of raw materials eg copper, oil, steel

He reiterated that the UK has firm policy commitments:

• Kyoto Protocol of 1997: ratified by over 150 countries – set legally binding reduction targets of 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
• The UK has set itself a challenging target to reduce carbon emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2010
• The long-term target is to bring emissions down by 60% by 2050
• Energy supply – to produce 12% UK electricity from renewable sources by 2010

…but Barnes warned that we are not likely to meet targets on current trends.

The 2010 target is 129 mtC. The building agenda is vitally important as 46% of carbon emissions are from the use of buildings. This is broken down into:

• 27% from dwellings.
• 46% of carbon emissions are from the use of buildings
• 27% from dwellings

The consultation document was presented as a voluntary code of essential and optional elements giving the potential to inform home owners how sustainable the home they are buying is compared to another. It is designed to have a transparent system of ratings.
It went out to consultation (closed 6 March 2006) and elicited over 2,000 responses (see figure 1):

The Government announced that all homes built with government funding (eg Housing Corporation, English Partnerships, etc) will meet Code Level 3. And as an interim measure – Ecohomes “Very Good” from April 2006.
The ODPM (DCLG) issued proposals on
9 March 2006 to “Strengthen The Code”; based on an initial analysis of consultation returns.
The plan is to:

• Make assessment to the code mandatory
• The code to signal the future direction of building regulations
• Possibly widen coverage of the code in the future
• Make energy and water efficiency levels non-tradable
• Set level 1 of the code for energy and water efficiency above building regulations
• Promote micro-renewables

Barnes clarified “mandatory” – as meaning “mandatory assessments”.

All new homes and those sold or let will already have to have a mandatory energy efficiency rating (a requirement of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive); Ministers are considering mandatory assessments against the whole Code ie a
sustainability rating.

Barnes said that the Code should form the basis for the next wave of improvements to mandatory Building Regulations ie: indicate where the Building Regulations should be in 5, 10 or 15 years time.

Ministers are minded for the Code to cover existing homes at some point in the future, as well as new ones. And perhaps to cover non-domestic buildings, new and existing ones in future too.

Ministers wish to limit tradability in the key environmental areas of the Code – for example energy efficiency and water efficiency. It means that minimum standards for water and energy efficiency will be set for every level of the Code.

The Code consultation document set Level 1 (Energy Efficiency) at Building Regulations Part L (2006). Ministers are minded to raise this above the level of Building Regulations and above that for water efficiency (when that is regulated).

Ministers wish to use Code to promote on-site energy generation. It means that homes that use micro-renewable technology will gain extra Code Points. The details are currently being worked on.

Although the consultation closed on 6 March 2006 it raised issues such as whether to include ecology and transport. And whether items such as “security” and “lifetime homes” should be an essential element rather than a desirable elements.

Barnes asked: “Should we include items such as ‘Good Design’ or ‘Space Standards’.”

Barnes believes the Code will make a big difference. The base in the consultation document saves 25,000 litres of water a year per house. And 0.5 billion litres from social housing.

Barnes concluded that there is a potential to save an average of £800 per household on utility bills; make homes more liveable, less wasteful, more secure, more comfortable and be as easy to understand as washing machine efficiency labels.