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Improvements to the website and search

We’ve made some improvements to our website to make it quicker and easier to find what you need when visiting. 

This is first in a series of improvements to online services, so we'd love to know what you think of these changes and whether they have helped you do what you needed to do today. We’ll use this feedback to continue to improve things in the future.   

Complete a short survey to let us know what you think – it should take no more than five minutes to complete. Thank you for your help. 

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Technical and legal updates

 

SCOSS issued an alert on the structural safety of glass balustrades.

This followed an incident earlier in the year where a glass panel in a balustrade at a school in Manchester failed, allowing a pupil to fall through the exposed hole and sustaining minor injuries.

They warn, "Balustrades and other barriers not designed and built to an appropriate standard pose a serious risk to safety."

For further advice please visit the Structural Safety Website or read the alert.

Update to the Building Regulations Approved Documents

Parts F (Ventilation) and Part L (Conservation of fuel and power) have been amended and new regulations Parts O (Overheating) and S (Infrastructure for charging electric vehicles) have been introduced.

Find out more on Approved Documents - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Approved Document (J) and early warning B “Warning of release of carbon monoxide” on the provision of carbon monoxide alarms where gas burning appliances and oil burning appliances are installed.

Find out more on Approved Document J 2022 amendments: circular 03/2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Transitional arrangements: The Building (Amendment) Regulations and ADB updates

The Regulations and guidance come into force on 1 December 2022. However, the regulations will not apply where a building notice or an initial notice has been given to, or full plans deposited with, a local authority before 1 December 2022 and either the building work to which it relates:

  1. has started before that day; or
  2. is started within the period of six months beginning on that day

Please note that “building notice”, “initial notice” and “full plans” have the meanings given in Regulation 2 of the Building Regulations 2010.

Commencement of work

In the Department’s opinion the commencement of work would usually be marked by work such as:

  • Excavation for strip or trench foundations or for pad footings
  • Digging out and preparation of ground for raft foundations
  • Vibrofloatation (stone columns) piling, boring for piles or pile driving
  • Drainage work specific to the building(s) concerned

We consider that the following sorts of work would not be likely to constitute the commencement of work:

  • Removal of vegetation
  • Demolition of any previous buildings on the site
  • Removal of top soil
  • Removal or treatment of contaminated soil
  • Excavation of trial holes
  • Dynamic compaction
  • General site servicing works (e.g. Roadways)

In some cases, applications will be in respect of a number of buildings on a site, for example a number of houses. In such cases it is the commencement of work on the first of the buildings within the application which determines whether all the building work can take advantage of the transitional provisions, not each individual building.

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