The housing minister, Caroline Flint has ‘confirmed’ the proposals for mandatory Code for Sustainable Homes assessments for all new dwellings from May 1 2008.
From the reporting of her speech, it would appear that my last post was kinda correct. As I understand the proposals, all new dwellings will need to have a certificate defining the performance of the dwelling in relation to the Code, and this certificate must be made available for the HIP upon sale.
However, developers can, if they wish, not undertake the formal design, assessment and post-construction review process by producing a standard ‘nil points’ certificate which will presumably be made available centrally. This certificate will state that as no formal assessment has taken place, the dwelling achieves a CSH Level 0.
Given the aspiration to achieve Level 6 by 2016, there should be a much clearer defined timescale for the introduction of minimum performance levels for the private development sector, comparable to Housing Corp. requirement for Code Level 3.
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