Part L revision groups meet

The first meeting has been held between industry advisory groups (IAGs) including CIBSE and the Department for Communities Local Government to decide what issues will are paramount for the construction and building sector.

“Basically we have agreed to lock up the techies in a room to decide what needs to be looked at,” said John Tebbit, head of regulations at the Construction Products Association, one of the IAGs. “Don’t expect anything until consultations early next year.”

While the next revision is set for 2010, the IAGs will now decide what issues remain from the previous two revisions, said Hywel Davies, CIBSE’s technical director and delegate to the meeting for non-domestic issues. “It was basically an opportunity for the department to set out their priorities as we move towards net zero-carbon by 2016.”

There is a ministerial commitment, said Davies, for the domestic market to be net zero CO2 emission for new home construction by 2016. “No such commitment has been made for non-domestic and a recent UK Green Building Council report suggested the non-domestic market would struggle to meet that at least until 2020.”

It is also likely that both non-domestic and domestic buildings will have a 25% reduction target for CO2, said Davies.

Among the other IAGs at the meeting were BSRIA, Feta and HVCA.