Home Builders

With a high percentage of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions coming from the energy we use to
heat and power our homes, it is imperative that new homes are designed and built with a view to
be sustainable.

In 2006, the government introduced the Code for Sustainable Homes to ensure that the design and construction of new homes meets the UK’s national standards for sustainability.

Although building regulations, including Part L, will continue to identify legal construction obligations introduced in 2006, the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes, with code levels from one to six, will act as a step change in sustainable home building. It will become the single national standard and will be applied to both social housing groups and private homebuilders and will act as a guide to the sustainable design and construction requirements for future properties. The identifiable code levels will also give purchasers additional buying selection criteria by providing an easy to understand guide to the environmental level to which their home has been built.

With the government’s current drive to build new houses, it is anticipated that one third of all new UK housing stock will be built between now and 2050. The Code for Sustainable Homes’ six code levels will also be used as minimum planning permission target levels. Government land and social housing grants will also be dependent upon ‘bidders’ meeting specified code levels. Legislation will ultimately require homebuilders to design and build properties which are both environmentally and ecologically friendly and energy and cost efficient to run.

In this time of rising energy bills, the code levels will also allow homebuilders the opportunity to prove the energy efficiency and sustainability of ‘their’ homes, especially in areas experiencing high levels of new build and, in particular, on consortium sites. Isoenergy can assist both social and private homebuilders to achieve the Code for Sustainable Homes code level accreditations.

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