Regulations are a necessary part of any industry, and although they may be frustrating at times, really do have the ability to make improvements all round. It’s through regulations that working practices are made safer, and through them too that quality of work can be vastly improved. That is to say, when said regulations are done the right way.
The UK construction industry is currently in quite a transformative state. In fact, it seems like all we’ve been hearing about recently is new regulations coming into force and upcoming standards that are on the horizon. Naturally, the biggest of these change to come is the ever impending Future Homes Standard 2025 (FHS).
I’m sure you’ve all heard more than your fair share about how this is set to reform the way we build properties, drastically reducing the carbon emissions involved through changes to fabric, heat sources and so on. While the concept of these ideas is sound and we are in a losing battle with the health of our planet, there’s a way to go about change and if we look at the government’s track record. Well, I’m not exactly hopeful…. Let’s look at one recent new regulatory change in the form of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for example, which enforces enhanced biodiversity in new developments by a net 10%, preferably on-site but with an option to buy off-site credits too. The roll out from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) first came to major developments in February, then hit smaller developments in April, with nationally significant builds set to be affected from November 2025. With the first two stages already implemented, it’s safe to say the reception hasn’t been entirely positive.
In fact, a rather damning report from the National Audit Office (NAO) showed that Defra hasn’t sufficiently planned ahead for long-term success. While local authorities were given funds to prepare for the changes, these were to be used at the discretion of the local authorities and no extra funds are being provided to actually monitor or enforce on-site gains. What’s more, Defra won’t be centrally monitoring how well on and off-site biodiversity gains are being enforced by local authorities, nor does the department have a legally compliant mechanism to spend income from statutory credit sales to enhance biodiversity (if they are used as a last resort because the private market can’t provide enough off-site credits).
More importantly than all of this though, is the sheer lack of communication to small developers from those responsible for the new regulations. As I mentioned earlier, regulations do have the capacity to really improve an industry. But when most of those in the industry don’t know what these changes are, and the infrastructure as a whole hasn’t been prepared to support them, how can we expect regulations to succeed? It seems to have almost fallen on the shoulders of manufacturers to educate the industry and while it’s great that they’re doing this, they shouldn’t have to.
If a recent survey from Polypipe is anything to go by, the FHS isn’t going to be any different. Almost half (49%) of housebuilders say that their business is not prepared for the FHS, and a further 61% think it will be extremely challenging to meet the legislation. So, will the powers that be learn from their mistakes and actively try to support the industry through these monumental changes? We’ll have to wait and see.
