Wales and Scotland introduce new Building Regulations

By Jason Hewins, New Dwellings Manager

Following the introduction of Part L 2021 for England in the summer of 2022, Wales has also introduced an update to its version of Part L in November.

Part L 2022 for Wales saw a number of changes to the energy efficiency standards applied to building work. For new dwellings there will be a 32% reduction in carbon emissions where a dwelling is built to Part L 2022, compared to the previous regulations. Part L 2022 also sees the introduction of the new primary energy and minimum energy efficiency rating metrics alongside the retained carbon metric. The minimum standards for building fabric and services have also been tightened to ensure good quality construction and efficient services are installed. dwellings, and a new compliance report, the Building Regulations Wales Part L (BRWL), must be signed by the developer and SAP assessor at as built stage. There is also the requirement for photographic evidence to be taken during the build process and submitted to both the SAP assessor and Building Control Body in order to ensure the SAP assessment reflects what has been constructed.

Elmhurst’s Design SAP 10 software was updated on the 23rd November following BRE approval to allow users to model assessments against the new compliance standards in Wales. of Building Standards to be introduced shortly. Section 6 2022 will be introduced on 1st February 2023 and contains some key changes from the previous Section 6 standards.

Section 6 2022 will see a reduction in carbon emissions of 37% compared to a dwelling constructed to the previous standards. There will also be the introduction of a new delivered energy metric to sit alongside the retained carbon emissions metric for all new homes.

As in England and Wales, there has been a tightening of the minimum standards for building fabric and services. Airtightness testing is now mandatory in all new dwellings to ensure consistency of build quality and assurance that the ventilation system installed is appropriate for the level of airtightness in the dwelling.

Following BRE approval our Design SAP 10 software was updated on 16th December to allow users to assess the impact of Section 6 2022 on their SAP assessments. This gives industry seven weeks to prepare their designs for when the new standards are implemented on 1st February 2023.

This year has been unprecedented in that there has never been a change to Building Regulations in three regions of the UK in such a short time period. Whilst this has been very challenging for us, we are delighted that Design SAP 10 is fully BRE approved for England, Wales and Scotland assessments to the new regulations. We have plenty of exciting features planned for Design SAP 10 in 2023 and look forward to further developments of Building Regulations in the coming years.