Changes to the heritage protection regime are on the way following publication of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill sponsored by the Department of Business. Many of the proposed changes have been in discussion for some years and English Heritage has welcomed the arrival of legislation to deliver improvements to the system.

The bill seeks to fundamentally change the Heritage List for England so that the extent of a building's special interest would be legally defined in its list entry â...

Grant Shapps, housing minister and self-proclaimed self-build enthusiast, hosted a celebrity 'workshop' at 10 Downing Street last week to highlight new support measures for self-builders and to make a pledge to double the size of the bespoke homes sector.

The event saw the launch of a new one-stop Self Build Portal that brings together sources of advice and a progress report from the National Self Build Association (NaSBA), which drew up an action plan last year at the request of the housing...

The Green Building Store has just launched some extremely useful new resources on low energy retrofits, which aim to help householders make well-informed decisions for improving the energy efficiency of their homes.

The resources include case studies of typical hard-to-treat homes in West Yorkshire and also offer guidance on developing 'whole house plans' and ventilation strategies. 

Click here to download

Click on the You Tube link below to watch computer animations showing examples of best pra...

There is a growing population of architects, builders and planners who are familiar with CSH, and know what needs to be done in order to meet what can be a strict and rigorous planning condition.

One thing is definitely for certain: C4SH (The Code) requirements can be a postcode lottery; you are far more likely to be asked for the Code if you are building in the South East of England or around the Midlands. Although more and more planners are starting to ask for CSH compliance, especially on...

I am a great fan of LED lighting as the preferred method of low energy lighting and have successfully incorporated replacement LED lighting in several residential projects over the last couple of years. I am pleased to say to the total satisfaction of the owners. Therefore, inspired by the clarity of an article I recently read, I wanted to share these reasons. This blog might look counterintuitive at first glance, but having read it I may have convinced you that compact fluorescent light bulb...

1. The optimum orientation is ‘due south' (not ‘magnetic south') as this will maximise the sunshine and/or daylight.2. The optimum pitch of the PV Module is 30 degrees. At this angle, the PV Module will 'self clean' as much as possible.

3. A PV Module fitted at less than 10 degrees pitch will need regular manual cleaning.

4. An array of PV Modules can be a very effective source of electricity production, depending on the size and number in the array. This could provide a consistent sour...

BRE has just released its proposals on how the SAP methodology should be changed in line with the planned revision of Building Regulations in 2013; the next step towards proposed Zero Carbon houses by 2016.

It should be noted that this is consultation stage only.

There are eight key changes which may be relevant on upcoming housing developments.

This consultation only applies to the calculations used for producing SAP assessments and EPC's. It does not cover Target Emission Rates, limiting U...