19/12/2022
Building Regulations Update 2022
From the 15th of June 2022, all Building Regulation applications in England, received from this date, will need to adhere to the new standards.
The government has introduced a range of changes to the current Building Regulations, including a mandatory 30 per cent cut in carbon for all new homes and a 27 per cent cut for other buildings, including offices and shops.
To support the amendments to the current Building Regs, five new approved documents have been published:
Approved Document L, volume 1: dwellings; (fuel and power)
Approved Document L, volume 2: buildings other than dwellings; (fuel and power)
Approved Document F, volume 1: dwellings; (ventilation)
Approved Document F, volume 2: buildings other than dwellings; (ventilation)
Approved Document O covering overheating. (overheating in new homes)
Focus is on the adoption of a fabric first approach, with higher minimum fabric standards for the external envelope of the building, along with improved airtightness and the introduction of low-carbon heating technologies.
The maximum permitted U-values in the 2022 Part L have decreased slightly, ahead of the more stringent decreases in 2025. For example, in existing building extensions, the U-Values for walls are to be tightened, from 0.28W/m2 K to 0.18W/m2 K and roofs tightened, from 0.18W/m2 K to 0.15W/m2 K.
New homes
30% cut on emissions from new homes and a 27% cut on new buildings including offices and shops
Introduction to a new Building Regulation and Approved Document O has been set up to deal with the risk of overheating in new homes.
New homes will adopt the Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard to measure energy efficiency
There will be a maximum flow temperature requirement of 55°C for new and replacement heating systems, as part of the Part L uplift
An appendix has been included in Part L which sets out a good practice specification for a home built with a heat pump.
Existing homes
Uplifts to Part L & Part F of the Building Regulations have set new minimum standards for fabric efficiency. For example, there will be a new efficiency metric for the whole house calculation method for new extensions
There will be a requirement for new or replacement heating system designs to accept low-carbon heating in future, including integrating the latest Eco design appliance benchmarks.
