Code for Sustainable Homes

In 2006 the Government launched a package of measures in a consultation document 'Building a Greener Future: Towards Zero Carbon Development', designed to to improve the environmental footprint by reducing carbon emissions of new homes. A stated objective is that they will progressively tighten building regulations to reduce the carbon footprint of new homes to zero by 2016.

In December 2006, the 'Code for Sustainable Homes' - a new national standard for sustainable design and construction of new homes was launched for consultation. Since April 2007 the developer of any new home in England can choose to be assessed against the Code.

The Code measures the sustainability of a new home against categories of sustainable design, rating the ‘whole home' as a complete package. The Code uses a 1 to 6 star rating system to communicate the overall sustainability performance of a new home. The Code sets minimum standards for energy and water use at each level.

In July 2007 the consultation document was published: 'The future of the Code for Sustainable Homes - Making a rating mandatory'. This consultation also asks about the future of the Code, including whether Lifetime Homes standards should be made mandatory at progressively lower levels of the Code over time.

In November 2007 a summary of the responses to the proposals was published. The principle message is that as a result of consultation, the Government will be proceeding with the implementation of mandatory rating against the Code for all new homes.

From April 2008 it is proposed that all new homes will be required to have a madatory code rating, indicating whether they have been assessed and the performance of the home against the code.