Rooftop Living Homes Standard
Our mission at Rooftop Housing Group... ...is to build Great Homes and support Successful Lives by being a Better Business. It is written into the very fabric of our organisation that we go above and beyond. We are committed to developing high quality, well designed, energy efficient homes in which our customers can live successful lives. Because we build Great Homes we will always aim to achieve EPC A rating on all new houses where possible. In our land led schemes we adopt a “fabric first” approach and our new homes are supplemented by renewable technologies including Photo-voltaic (PV) panels, air source heat pumps, and ground source heat pumps to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and keep utility bills low for our customers. The resident comes first and we know that our residents need homes that are warm but ultimately they need to be inexpensive to run and easy to live in. Because we’re working with an environmental imperative as much as an economic imperative, we incorporate items such as water butts, recycling bins and composting facilities in our developments… it’s these nudges that make it far easier for our residents to live more environmentally friendly lives. The wider environment is as important as the directly lived environment, and to address that we enhance the quality of the natural landscape by using native planting, bat and bird boxes and wildflower meadows to increase biodiversity as well as creating a pleasant setting for our new homes.
What is the Rooftop Living Homes Standard? We have researched extensively across the sector and beyond, taking best practice from the UK and Europe and we have seen that ambitious minimum requirements are the way to raise the bar around environmental and sustainable developments. The Rooftop Living Homes Standard (RLHS) sets out the minimum requirements for all new homes that we develop. The RLHS is a significant improvement on current building regulations because we want to ensure that we have better environmental credentials for land led new homes giving better environmental outcomes for the tenants and owners alike. We have identified 6 categories which cover the core functions of a dwelling and how it interacts with the wider environment for the benefit of the end user. Energy, water, carbon, comfort, space, place We have developed aspirational targets for our new build development we are raising the bar of what our minimum acceptable is. Putting this into practice the RLHS is a guiding principles document rather than prescriptive measures. We can’t provide a “One size fits all� solution because each development needs to be appropriate; appropriate to the site, the prevailing need, the practicalities and the cost. Our Design Guide and Employers Requirements will remain the detailed specification, and those documents are directly fed by the Rooftop Living Homes Standard
Rooftop Living Homes Standard
NDSS – Nationally Described Space Standards. LTH – Lifetime Homes. SBD – Secure by Design. MVHR – Mechanical Ventilation & Heat Recovery. MMC – Modern Methods Construction SUDS – Sustainable Urban Drainage System. PV Panels – Photo-voltaic Panels (solar) EPC – Energy Performance Certificate
The RLHS Model
The model is split in to the above 6 key categories relating to water, energy, carbon, comfort, place & space, and is made up of 3 concentric circles. The inner circle relates to building regulations which is the minimum build standard all housebuilders must meet. The yellow circle is the baseline ‘Rooftop Living Homes Standard’ (RLHS) and all new developments will meet the essential criteria. The outer green circle is the ‘Rooftop Living Homes Standard PLUS’ (RLHS+) and RHG will aim to meet this standard wherever possible. We aim to meet 2 if not all of the elements within each RLHS segment, that is our new normal for land led schemes. Any inability to meet these standards will be highlighted and assessed as to whether other mitigation can be made whilst the scheme remains appropriate.
The Rooftop’s Living Homes Standard has been created to ensure that we provide homes that are designed for today and are ready for tomorrow. These homes will provide a cost-efficient place for our customers to live, be happy and for us to sustain for the longer term, whilst also benefitting the wider environment for generations to come. The RLHS is adaptable and will be flexible to take advantage of changes in design and specification to ensure our new homes stay at the forefront of innovation and best practice. We thank The Sustainable Housing Action Partnership whose research has informed the development of the Rooftop Living Homes Standard.
#RLHS Rooftop Housing Group 70 High Street Evesham Worcestershire WR11 4YD 01386 420800 @Rooftop_Housing