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UK Building Regulations - A Summary
The Building Regulations set minimum legal standards in the UK for the design and construction of buildings - primarily to ensure the safety and health of people in or around those buildings, but also for energy conservation and access to buildings. Complying with Building Regulations is a separate matter from obtaining planning permission for work to be carried out.
The following types of project amount to 'Building Work' as defined in Regulation 3 of the Building Regulations:
- the erection or extension of a building
- the installation or extension of a service or fitting which is controlled under the regulations
- an alteration project involving work which will temporarily or permanently affect the ongoing compliance of the building, service or fitting with the requirements relating to structure, fire, or access to and use of buildings
- the insertion of insulation into a cavity wall
- the underpinning of the foundations of a building
If such work is proposed, then it must comply with the Building Regulations. The works themselves should meet the relevant technical requirements in the Building Regulations and they should not make other fabric, services and fittings less compliant than they previously were - or dangerous. For example, if external windows or doors are replaced, the building should comply to at least the same degree as it did before or - if it exceeded the standards - not be reduced below the standards in relation to:
- means of escape from fire
- air supply for combustion appliances and their flues
Also, in this example, the replacement window / door should also fully satisfy the requirements for energy conservation and ventilation for health.
The Building Regulations may also apply to certain changes of use of an existing building. This is because the change of use may result in the building as a whole no longer complying with the requirements which will apply to its new type of use, and so having to be upgraded to meet additional requirements specified in the regulations.
There are a number of classes of new buildings or extensions of existing buildings that do not need Building Regulations approval - subject to certain criteria on size, construction and position relative to boundaries being met.
The requirements with which building work should comply are contained in Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations and are grouped under the fourteen 'parts' below:
- Part A - Structure
- Part B - Fire safety
- Part C - Site preparation and resistance to moisture
- Part D - Toxic substances
- Part E - Resistance to the passage of sound
- Part F - Ventilation
- Part G - Hygiene
- Part H - Drainage and waste disposal
- Part J - Combustion appliances and fuel storage systems
- Part K - Protection from falling, collision and impact
- Part L - Conservation of fuel and power
- Part M - Access to and use of buildings
- Part N - Glazing - safety in relation to impact, opening and cleaning
- Part P - Electrical safety
They set out the broad objectives or functions which the individual aspects of the building design and construction should set out to achieve. They are therefore often referred to as 'functional requirements' and are expressed in terms of what is 'reasonable', 'adequate', or 'appropriate'. Not all the functional requirements may apply to all building work, but all those which do apply should be complied with as part of the overall process of complying with the Building Regulations.
Government publishes guidance on ways of meeting these requirements in what are known as Approved Documents. The guidance in the documents does not amount to a set of statutory requirements and does not have to be followed if you wish to design and construct your building work in some other way, providing you can show that it still complies with all the relevant requirements which apply. It will, however, be taken into account when the relevant building control service is considering whether plans of proposed work, or work in progress, are to be approved or not.