It is no longer seen as just another environmental tool designed for use only in large or high specification projects – BREEAM certification has become a well-known, respected and widely recognized standard, featuring in everyday terminology across the property industry from Agency to Management and Development.

Building owners and developers have become keenly aware that the analysing and documentation of their building’s energy and sustainability credentials is key to attracting buyers and tenants by giving their buildings an edge – making them more desirable in fact. Over 200,000 buildings in the UK have already achieved BREEAM ratings whilst over 1,000,000 have been registered since 1990.

Furthermore, the BREEAM scheme family has expanded to encompass pretty much every building type from domestic to commercial and public, existing and refurbishment, as well as new construction.

Whilst not directly part of the current legislative framework, the demanding BREEAM methodology demonstrates the holistic thinking required for genuine sustainable development, design and construction.

Whilst undertaking a BREEAM assessment can seem a daunting and expensive prospect, appointing an experienced assessor as early as possible in the design process can streamline the process, potentially achieve more credits and make the entire assessment more cost-effective

CEADA is a BREEAM Licensed Assessor Company and has a number of BREEAM APs (Accredited Professionals) who would be delighted to answer any questions you may have about BREEAM or provide you with a free quote your or your Clients’ buildings.

The CIL was introduced in April 2010 with the intent of raising money from new development to fund a wide range of infrastructure needed as a result of the new development including transport schemes, flood defences, schools, hospitals, parks, green spaces, leisure centres etc.

As it stands, any new build, that is a new building or an extension, is liable for the levy if it has 100 square metres or more of gross internal floor space, or involves the creation of one dwelling, even when that is below 100 square metres. However, the gross floorspace of any existing building(s) on the site due for demolition, may be deducted from the CIL liability calculation (assuming the building has been in continuous and lawful use for at least six months in the twelve months prior to permission being granted for the development).

Sounds good in theory – but builders and developers, from one-off small private developers to large corporate and national companies, have complained that the charges have been excessive and therefore stifled the building industry even further at a time when pressure is on to address the nationwide housing shortage during difficult economic times.

The good news is that the government has listened and the consultation (which closes on the 28^th May) proposes a number of reforms intending to improve operation and roll-out of the levy by making it fairer, faster and more transparent.

If you would like to be involved and contribute to the consultation, you can access it here.

The even better news is that changes have already been made to boost the self-build housing sector.These include:

• ensuring councils establish the demand for self-build housing in their area and plan for the needs of people who want to build their own home

• maximising opportunities for self-builders to access land which central government is releasing as part of its accelerated surplus public land disposals programme

• working with the self-build industry, local authorities and the house building sector to promote locally planned self-build home housing developments where opportunities arise

• working with the self-build industry to launch an online Self-Build Portal which acts as a 1-stop shop for advice and support to would-be self-builders

• launching a £30 million investment fund to help community groups, builders and other organizations to get their self-build projects off the ground

• giving more community groups the ability to access £14 million of available support funding to help them initiate their local projects, even if they do not plan to use the Community Right to Build under the Localism Act 2011

We are always delighted to offer free advice to architects, developers and agents whose clients may need to obtain Code for Sustainable Homes or BREEAM certification for their developments – new or refurbishment – and strive to stay one step ahead of impacting legislation changes so our clients don’t have to.

 As a nation we are committed to an 80% reduction of CO² emissions by the year 2050. The need to improve the environmental performance of UK dwellings has been identified as a potentially significant means towards meeting that target.  It is estimated that 78% of existing dwellings in the UK will still exist in 2050.

Aims

According to BRE (British Research Establishment)  “The BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment scheme is intended to help improve the sustainability and environmental performance of existing dwellings in a robust and cost effective way”.

 The scheme is designed to assist building owners and occupiers to save operating costs whilst also reducing the environmental impact of refurbishments.

 What does it do?

 BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment can help planners, regulators, building owners and asset managers including Social Landlords, to set standards for dwelling refurbishment whilst also providing a market-focused label for more sustainable and higher quality refurbishments.

 The scheme is designed for use when refurbishment packages and specifications are being designed and developed.  It guides refurbishment design by identifying sustainability issues which should be considered.  It demonstrates environmental credentials to clients and tenants as well as funding and planning authorities.

The scheme is designed to help tackle fuel poverty and reduce flood, fire and security issues.  Furthermore it aims to enhance the health and well-being of dwelling occupants.

What does it cover?

A holistic range of environmental issues:

• Energy
• Health & Wellbeing
• Water
• Waste
• Materials
• Management
• Pollution
• Innovation

 Where can it be used?

 BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment can be used where a variety of alterations are being made to an existing dwelling – such as window replacement or new insulation for example.  It can be used for domestic conversions and change of use projects such as conversions of large dwellings into smaller ones or a hospital into dwelling, large refurbishment and regeneration schemes and so on.

We are pleased to announce that CEADA now has two fully qualified BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment Assessors who would be delighted to answer any questions you may have or advise on any forthcoming projects.

Source: www.breeam.org/domrefurb

Any building that is listed on the National Heritage website is exempt – below is a link to their website where all listed (and therefore exempt) buildings can be found. We hope this will be of use to you.

www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/listing/listed-buildings

Also, any publicly accessed building over 500m2 that has at any time in the past had an EPC assessment, must now display the certificate in order to comply with legislation.

Finally, the requirement to include the whole EPC graph along with the first page of the EPC on all marketing media (including newspaper and magazine advertising) has, in effect been dropped. Our understanding is that, should there not be enough space on a set of property particulars to include these, then all that is required is the inclusion of the actual rating itself – rather like listing the Rating Band or Council Tax Band.

We would be delighted to answer any further questions you may have and can be contacted on 0844 822 1770 or of course, via our website www.ceada.co.uk

Anyone reading the media coverage of the Energy Bill announcement last Friday will be left wondering who really won and what will happen next to energy policy. There were some clear winners but they weren’t on either side of the Coalition divide on decarbonisation, which means that the future direction of energy policy remains very uncertain.

The lack of agreement on decarbonisation raises the risk for the first time that climate change could become a dividing line between the political parties at the next election.

The winners and losers
The clear winners in the short term were the renewable development industry and the two CCS demonstration plants, which should now have sufficient levy support to drive a new wave of construction.  We are now likely to see a dash for offshore wind as ’round  three’ projects race to reach financial close before 2020.

The losers are renewable energy suppliers seeking to invest in UK manufacturing. The 2020 cliff, beyond which there is no certainty of support for low carbon power supply, means that the nine engineering businesses seeking to build offshore wind assembly plants in the UK will either have to build on the basis of orders from the short term offshore dash, or wait until an EU or UK framework emerges to give them some confidence that the market will continue to grow beyond 2020.

The other loser is therefore UK industrial policy, which has just been holed below the waterline by the decision not to set a 2030 decarbonisation target. We are embarking on the biggest modernisation of our energy system in decades with very few tools left to make sure it  directly benefits UK industry. According to BVG Consultants, the next wave of offshore wind could have 50-60 per cent UK content  with the help of UK turbine factories. In contrast, some existing projects, being built without the benefit of UK turbine manufacturers, appear to have as low as ten per cent UK content.

The media have tried and failed to write a convincing story of political winners and losers, because it was a score-draw, with Davey delivering a strong Levy Control Framework and Osborne blocking unprecedented levels of support for a decarbonisation target. As a result the polarised politics of the Energy Bill have not gone away, they will be decided by what sceptics and advocates of decarbonisation do next.

What the sceptics want
Sceptics will hope that the lack of a decarbonisation target and new capacity payments will lock in a gas trajectory.   However, despite received wisdom, this is unlikely to happen, because the fourth carbon budget means gas faces even more uncertainty post 2020 than renewables. The sceptics will therefore want the Conservative Party to go into the next election with a commitment to unwind decarbonisation and the Climate Change Act. To make that more likely they will continue to beat the drum of the costs of renewable energy. They will continue to conflate short term price increases caused by gas with the medium term costs of low carbon supply, and tap into widespread consumer distress about energy prices

Time to shift focus away from the target
Decarb advocates therefore have a dilemma. Do they keep driving for longer term certainty that will increase UK content and lower costs in the long run, or do they shift focus on the near term battle for public sentiment on energy bills?  Put it another way, do they keep pushing for stronger policy or switch to countering the threat to the UK public consensus on climate change action? It will be tempting to do the first, because it’s a targets and direction frame which has policy logic, but they should do the second because energy policy will be determined by this contest for hearts and minds.

It’s time to change strategy, and organise around a bold and tangible programme to help hard pressed consumers reduce their energy consumption and the impact of rising prices. The Energy Bill Revolution is an example of a broad based campaign which attempts to do this by pushing for new finance for energy saving, but it needs to be complimented with more immediate ways of helping the hardest pressed consumers and businesses.

It’s  time NGOs and business came together to offer direct energy saving services to their members and customers, at the same time as identifying the wider support needed for a bold UK  retrofit programme. This is much more likely to protect political backing for decarbonisation than another battle over the direction of energy policy. It also has the benefit of not exacerbating the message that UK energy policy is up for grabs, which is in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.

http://greenallianceblog.org.uk/2012/11/26/where-next-for-energy-policy/

The Code is intended to be a single national standard, guiding industry in the design and construction of sustainable homes. It is a means of driving forward improvement, innovation and exemplary achievement in sustainable new homes.

Energy assessment under the Code provides key information about the energy efficiency and carbon performance of the home.

Many Local Authority Planning Departments now insist on a Code for Sustainable Assessment as part of the planning permission.

The code works by awarding new homes a rating from Level 1 – 6, based on their performance against nine sustainability criteria which are combined to assess the overall environmental impact. Level 1 is entry level above building regulations and Level six is the highest, reflecting exemplary developments in terms of sustainability.

The nine design categories are

1  Energy/CO²

2 Water

3 Materials

4 Surface water run-off

5 Waste

6 Pollution

7 Health and well-being

8 Management

9 Ecology

In our experience it is vital to appoint an assessor to get involved as early as possible on a new project as costs and issues can develop and escalate fast.  This is something that is often overlooked during the initial phase.

If you would like to know more about the Code for Sustainable Homes or would like to discuss how the process works in practice, we would be delighted to hear from you.

www.ceada.co.uk    enquiries@ceada.co.uk    T  0844 822 1770

23.11.2012

These are questions we are continually asked when arranging access for an EPC survey, even though they have been around for some time now – so we thought it might be useful to explain what happens during the process and why.

The energy assessor needs to understand the internal layout of the building, how it has been constructed, what it is designed to be used for, the services, air conditioning/heating, lighting and controls used.  This is to understand the energy demands of each individual part (zones) of the building which are used for different purposes e.g. office, factory, kitchen and so on. The assessor will need to validate (via plans and/or physical survey) the zones, thermal insulation and building services.

The time take to perform an energy assessment will vary according to the size and nature of the property.  Because of the wide variation of commercial and domestic buildings, any form of ‘average time’ would not be meaningful.  The assessor will be as unobtrusive as possible but needs access to all areas of the building to take measurements and full notes of equipment in place. It is also a requirement that photographic evidence is recorded and logged.  All assessors are routinely monitored and audited for quality control purposes.

The information gathered is then entered into the approved software programme which produces the EPC and a Recommendation Report: energy efficiencies of installations must be checked before this can be done – which may take some time to collate for older or discontinued equipment. Once all the information has been received, the energy assessor will record the certificate onto a national register via his or her Accreditation Scheme and provide the seller or prospective landlord with a copy. Typically the time to finish the EPC will be twice as long as the amount of time taken on site.

The EPC does NOT measure actual energy consumption or use – it simply records, under current circumstances, how energy efficient the building is on a rating from A to G. It also estimates how this could be improved if recommended changes were made.  The Recommendation Report suggests what improvements could be made to increase the energy efficiency of the building. Currently the implementation of these recommendations is not mandatory – although this is quite likely to change as the push to reduce carbon emissions in line with agreed targets becomes more urgent.

The certificate is then ready to be given to new building owners or made available to prospective buyers or tenants thus complying with current European legislation. The EPC certificate is valid for a period of 10 years.

Author:  CEADA Ltd -  www.ceada.co.uk

11.10.12

Asked to choose between having the two energy sources within two miles of their home, 67% of respondents favoured a turbine, compared to just 11% who would support the gas development.

The findings of the UK-wide ICM survey shows that only nuclear power and coal are less popular than shale gas developments.

What would you choose ?

(Source:  The Guardian, ICM)

The building assessed was the main re-homing building, encompassing a reception area, training barn and kitchen, offices, vet suite, sponsor dog and re-homing kennels, at the newly rebuilt Dogs Trust Centre in Shrewsbury.

Dogs Trust wanted a comfortable environment for the dogs waiting to be re-homed, in a building that would also be highly efficient yet simple to run.

We can’t help wondering though, what do the residents use the green roof for?

The main contractor was McPhillips (Wellington) Ltd.

(Sources: bream.org, napierandco.com)

It seems that Henry Vlll’s Chancel Repair Liability has the potential to cause havoc over the next year or so. Chancel repair liability enables approximately 5,200 pre-Reformation Church of England and Church of Wales parishes to demand money from owners of particular properties on former monastery land, to fund repairs to their church buildings. These homeowners are called lay rectors, and they are liable for keeping the chancel – the space around the altar at the liturgical east end of the building – wind-proofed and water-tight.

Churches have begun pursuing claims since the 2008 House of Lords ruling that Andrew and Gail Wallbank had to pay £186,986, plus VAT, towards the upkeep of St John the Baptist church in Aston Cantlow, near Stratford-upon-Avon. They also had to pay legal costs of around £220,000.

So what’s happening now ?  After an attempt by the last Government to tidy up the law after the Wallbank ruling, parishes have been ordered to trawl through land records dating back hundreds of years to clarify exactly who is liable.  The 10-year legal deadline expires in October 2013 by which time all houses liable for the charge must be registered.

The Charity Commission has warned that they if they do not, individual members of the Parochial Church Council could be liable for the repairs or even found in breach of their legal duties as trustees.

The Church of England said that English Heritage has also made clear that it would not provide grants for repairs to historic churches if parishioners’ had a legal duty which was not imposed.

Unregistered CRL based on land post October 2013 will still have the relevant share of the liability if there is no sale of the relevant land pre-registration. So in theory huge amounts of CRL can still be registered years down the line as long as the subject land remains in the same hands. A house purchaser could still be caught out if a liability was registered in, say, 2014 whilst their purchase was in process and it may become difficult or impossible to obtain insurance against the CRL.

There is no cap on the liability ;  extensions, alterations or repairs made since medieval times may be covered, effectively blighting the property and even exceeding its value.

The charges are not limited exclusively to the freeholder, tenants may be liable directly or indirectly through clauses in their lease – nor do they exclusively to domestic properties, commercial premises may also be equally liable.

Currently insurance has been both easy and reasonable to obtain but the potential of more and substantial payouts may see premiums rise.      (Sources:  Property Week, Morgan Russell Sols, Clutton Cox Sols)