Fitz Architects have taken in the third careers fair day at Cleadon Village Primary School to help children explore their career options for the future.
http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/Parents-are-working-class-heroes.6615548.jp
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Fitz Architects were very pleased to receive the coveted Special Innovation Award from Four Housing Group in October.
The award was granted for our contribution to the Reed Street ‘carbon negative’ housing scheme in South Tyneside which is due to start on site early next year.
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HMO LEGISLATION
Rental properties are in high demand at present as many people struggle to pay or arrange mortgages due to the economic climate. There are also many investors who buy the Echo Property Supplement that be searching for investment properties.
Within the last year, significant changes have taken place which affect landlords who rent properties to more than one ‘household’. We thought it might be appropriate to discuss the new changes in legislation governing Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) and their affect on landlords.
The definition of a ‘House in Multiple Occupation’ can be found at www.communities.gov.uk but in broad terms, it is a building, or part of a building (e.g. a flat) which is occupied by more than one household and in which more than one household shares an amenity such as a bathroom, toilet or cooking facilities. A ‘household’ is defined as families, single persons and co-habiting couples. Wider definitions relate to the number of households, converted buildings, self-contained flats and storey heights.
On the 6th of April 2010 controversial new law came into place which required landlords to gain planning permission if they wanted to let out their HMO to three or more unrelated ‘households’. The Town and Country Planning Act created a new planning use class ‘C4’ for HMO properties, which requires landlords to apply for planning permission to change the use from a family home (planning use class C3) to a HMO. The change in the law did not apply to or affect existing HMO properties.
The purpose of the change in legislation was to try and prevent large residential areas becoming overdeveloped with HMO properties and provide local authority control over the concentration of HMO’s in particular areas such as student housing. There was great concern from agents and landlord groups who thought that there may be a shortfall in the availability of rental properties due to the cost of obtaining planning permission and an HMO license from the local authority. Many landlords are unaware that this legislation was introduced and of their new responsibilities, especially with the irony that to turn an HMO back to a family home it would have required a further planning application.
However, with the projected influx of C3 to C4 applications, the Governments Housing Minister has now granted new legislation which comes into effect on 1st October 2010 that could reportedly cut as many as 8,500 planning applications and avoid the flooding of the planning system with minor applications.
This latest legislation means that the definition of the C4 HMO planning use class will remain in force but permitted development rights will allow all changes between the C4 and C3 classes without the need for planning applications.
In areas where there is a need to control HMO development, local authorities can use an Article 4 direction to remove the permitted development rights and require a planning application for such changes of use. The legislation will ensure councils only have to use this power where they know high concentrations of shared homes are a problem.
The Housing Minister said: “Where there are local issues with shared homes, councils will have all the tools they need to deal with the problem – but they will avoid getting bogged down in pointless applications, and landlords won’t be put off renting shared homes where they are needed.”
Anyone looking to rent a property as an HMO should check first with their local authority who will be able to confirm whether a property requires a license under HMO regulations.
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A BUILDING REGULATIONS UPDATE
We have briefly touched on the Building Regulations previously but this month we would like to look into this further as it is a large part of any project from small extensions to new houses, from multi-million pound retail parks to the fit out of a small shop.
The Building Regulations are broken down into 14 sections known as Approved Documents. These are as follow:
Approved Document A – Structure
Approved Document B – Fire Safety
Approved Document C – Site Preparation and Resistance to Contaminants and Moisture
Approved Document D – Toxic Substances
Approved Document E – Resistance to the Passage of Sound
Approved Document F – Ventilation
Approved Document G – Hygiene
Approved Document H – Drainage and Waste Disposal
Approved Document J – Combustion Appliances and Fuel Storage Systems
Approved Document K – Protection from Falling, Collision and Impact
Approved Document L – Conservation of Fuel and Power
Approved Document M – Access to and use of Buildings
Approved Document N – Glazing – Safety in Relation to Impact, Opening and Cleaning.
Approved Document P – Electrical Safety – Dwellings
Each of these documents prescribes the regulation which must be met and also offers a great deal of guidance on how to achieve the regulation. They are issued by the Communities and Local Government (formerly Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) and are periodically reviewed and amended so that they are kept up to date.
In November this year Approved Document L will be amended which will ensure every project that is submitted for Building Control Approval on or after November 1st must be 25% more energy efficient than current standards. However, these regulations will also apply if a project is currently approved by Building Control but has not commenced before 1st October 2011. Energy efficiency is an important subject in this day and age which is why these regulations are being reviewed and will continue to be updated, in 2013 these regulations will again be amended and any project must then be 44% more energy efficient than today’s standards. This will come to a head in 2016 when a further update will ensure projects are 150% more energy efficient than today’s standards or what is known as ‘Zero Carbon’. If you read this article regularly you will recall our 3rd issue on Sustainable Design in which we explained our Reed Street development in South Tyneside which is aiming to go beyond these standards and be Carbon Negative.
There are a number of ways to measure the energy efficiency of a building. The most common method which is used today (and will seemingly remain the most common) is the National Calculation Method. There are different versions of this, for dwellings it is the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and for commercial buildings it is the Simplified Building Energy Model (SBEM). These calculation methods works out how much CO2 is given out by a building in two stages, the first is the Target Emission Rate (TER) and the second is the Design Emission Rate (DER). The method of producing this information for the new 2010 regulations will not change, it will simply become more difficult to achieve. What these calculations take into account ranges from the heating system used to the performance of the building fabric through to any renewable energy proposed.
The heating system will be judged by how much energy it uses to heat your home or office. This could come down to the now commonly known ratings you see in an electrical store, an ‘A’ rated boiler is better than a ‘B’ rated etc.
The building fabric is a little more technical. This is judged using ‘U’ values which tell us the amount of heat lost through a building element (wall, floor, window, roof etc.) An external wall for example currently must achieve a ‘U’ value of 0.35W/m2K, the new 2010 regulations coming into force mean that this is reduced to 0.30W/m2K.
Once the most economic heating system is specified and the building fabric is performing sufficiently, the next step is to ensure that the heat does not escape through gaps in construction. This is where air tightness becomes important. Whilst the performance standard required will not be changing, the requirement for testing will be almost doubling; currently 10% of dwellings constructed must be tested to ensure compliance.
The reason for the change in Regulations in particular is to reduce energy consumption. As you are no doubt aware, fossil fuels are dramatically depleting all over the world therefore more and more emphasis is being put on conserving and reducing energy use.
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DEVELOPING WITH WILDLIFE
Obtaining planning approval can sometimes be a demanding experience and in recent times applicants have been asked to jump through more hoops with new government policy sometimes requesting wildlife surveys as part of planning applications. With the help of Paul Salmon from our partners and ecological consultants EcoNorth, we’d like to shed some light on the relevance of these surveys to your building projects and everyday lives.
Modern building design aims to reduce the impact on the environment by making the construction process less wasteful and making buildings more energy efficient. One part of responsible development that is often neglected is the consideration of wildlife. Even in the most urban environments we can see wildlife can flourish even though the daytime activities of birds and insects are a lot more visible to us than the nocturnal exploits of creatures such as bats, otters, badgers and foxes.
Otters have been a great success story in our region returning to many of our rivers including the River Wear and endangered water voles can be found in Sunderland too. Bats can often be spotted around dusk with recordings of 11 different species of bats in County Durham.
Putting these few success stories to one side, there are many species suffering large declines for example swift numbers are down by 29% between 1995 and 2007 as well as sparrow and starling populations. Butterfly numbers have plummeted by an average of 55% over the last 30 years which make worrying statistics if we are to continue to live in places where our children can enjoy wildlife.
The reasons for such declines are complex but include the destruction of habitats and the reduction in nesting and breeding sites. The government has identified that modern society has a role to play in protecting wildlife and providing places for animals and plants to thrive. This means that future development and construction requires wildlife to be taken in to account. The Government’s guidelines to local planning authorities (a document known as PPS9) makes it very clear that biological diversity (or ‘biodiversity’) is to be conserved and enhanced with wildlife issues being a planning consideration. This guidance is given further weight in local development plans and policies against which planning applications are judged.
Planning authorities therefore have a duty to ensure that wildlife is protected and enhanced through the planning process. What this means for those developing even a single dwelling is that up to date information relating to how the proposals affect local wildlife may be required. Quite often what is requested are ecology surveys backed up by development plans that show how the results of the surveys are taken in to account in the proposals.
Bats, badgers, water voles, great crested newts and breeding birds are all protected by law in England and they can all be found on development sites. The law goes further providing statutory protection for the resting places of some species whether the animals are present at the time or not, such as bat roosts and badger setts.
To make things more complicated each species has a unique lifestyle with some species migrating over winter, some hibernating and some just a bit less active. So, the time to undertake surveys is mainly confined to a period between spring to early autumn. Missing a critical survey period can mean project delays whilst waiting for the next survey season to come around. By understanding this background developers are less likely to run in to difficulties through the development process and avoid costly delays.
So what happens if evidence of valuable wildlife is found on site? Although modern low-carbon building design, which focuses on minimising energy use, can provide few places for bats, swallows, swifts and other animals to make their homes a number of techniques can be used to help conserve and attract further wildlife. In many of our buildings Fitz Architects are working with EcoNorth to integrate habitats such as artificial bat and bird boxes, green roofs and gabion walls and wildlife friendly planting. The use of native species for planting is always a good idea to attract insects and butterflies which in turn provide food for birds and other animals. Immaculate lawns and gardens full of exotic plants do very little for our native wildlife, so remember to keep at least part of your garden a little bit wild, natural and native.
These days, preparation to develop a site also means being prepared to help ensure that wildlife is protected for future generations. Even if the developer of a site is not concerned with wildlife conservation, the local authority and Natural England (the Government’s wildlife protection quango) certainly are.
The marked decline in biodiversity over the 20th century (both in the UK and worldwide) has continued in to the 21st century and there is a role to be played by the development and construction industry in assisting to reverse this trend. Building for the future means providing space for both people and wildlife to flourish together. The benefits of a healthy environment are well known with people benefiting physically, mentally and in general well being from a healthy natural environment. By building better places for wildlife the aim is to build a better quality of life for people too.
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Fitz Architects have recently committed to sponsoring the under 8’s and 7’s junior teams at Westoe Rugby Club. The Sunderland based architectural practice has sponsored the teams to help nurture new, young talent at grass roots level.
Fitz Architects was set up in 2007 and has a growing reputation for distinctive and creative solutions to building design. The practice also invests time in visiting primary schools to explain to children the fundamentals of architectural design and their surroundings. Fitz has specialist knowledge of sustainable design as well as expertise in design within sensitive contexts – offering a unique balance between innovation and conservation, such as their “carbon-negative” social housing scheme in Reed Street, South Tyneside.
Craig Fitzakerly, managing director at Fitz Architects said “We are very keen to support the youngsters and help towards the kit they need. We are very proud that the under 7’s won the Northern Trophy a couple of weeks ago at Kingston Park wearing our name on their shirts for the first time and let’s hope that the new strips bring more success to the club in the future.”
http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/westoe/?section=clubnews&news_id=121248
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Fitz Architects have unveiled plans for a new memorial in Mowbray Park, Sunderland to remember those who have lost their lives in the armed forces since the second world war. Proposals for the wall for the Brothers In Arms charity, which will also have historical and educational significance, have gone on display at the City’s Museum and Winter Gardens and in the Sunderland Echo. http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/City39s-wall-of-heroes-revealed.6181642.jp
The wall will curve around the existing cenotaph and form a new focal point and public space in the City which annually hosts the largest Remembrance Day service outside of London.
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Fitz Architects have won both of their nominated categories at this years regional North East Business Awards held at the Ramside. From a very strong field, the entries for the Corporate Responsibility and Environment Award and the Small Business Award were whittled down to three finalists for the ceremony with Fitz winning both categories and going through to the north-east finals.
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SUSTAINABILITY
Following our previous two articles we have had various enquiries regarding issues on ‘green’ design and sustainability. We therefore decided to discuss environmentally responsible design and the Code for Sustainable Homes. The Code for Sustainable Homes is a national bench mark for housing standards set by the government and are due to become more stringent in April this year to ensure that all new government funded homes comply with Code Level 4. We will explain below what this exactly means.
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
‘Green’ or sustainable design does not just mean placing a wind turbine or solar panels on your roof. It requires a holistic approach to all aspects of design including orientation and location of a building to maximise natural ventilation, daylight and solar gains.
It is irrelevant whether people agree with climate change or global warming, the fact is that there is a need for more new housing which in turn needs to decrease in energy consumption to reduce dependency on expensive fossil fuels and impact on the environment.
Buildings impact on the environment in three ways: through the resources used in their creation, through the energy used in their operation and through the waste produced in construction, operation & disposal. The government’s legislation on new houses – The Code for Sustainable Homes – aims to score housing developments on these criteria in several ways.
CODE FOR SUSTAINABLE HOMES
The Code for Sustainable Homes is a standard for new dwellings that has been introduced to change national house building practice. It was introduced in December 2006 by the Government to improve the energy performance in the design of new houses. The Code will reduce the overall environmental impact of the construction sector and will form the basis for future Building Regulations in relation to CO2 emissions from energy use in homes.
The Code for Sustainable Homes deals with more than just energy use and carbon dioxide emissions. There are nine performance categories on which each development is scored:
- Energy use and carbon dioxide emissions
- Water
- Materials
- Surface water run-off
- Waste
- Pollution
- Health and well-being
- Management
- Ecology
The Code incorporates six levels for compliance, each of which has mandatory carbon dioxide emissions standards. The total points scored in each category determines whether the scheme is code level 1 through to 6.
Code level Reduction in carbon dioxide emissions compared with Building Regulations, Part L (2006)
1 10%
2 18%
3 25%
4 44%
5 100%
6 ‘Net Zero Carbon’
It is proposed that all new dwellings should be ‘zero carbon’, that is, compliant with Level 6 of the Code, by 2016. Although this seems a while off, massive strides are needed to achieve this not only in the design of our new homes but also in our everyday lifestyles.
OUR CODE LEVEL 6 SCHEME AT REED STREET
We were set a brief to design a ‘carbon negative’ social housing scheme on a former car park site in South Tyneside with many constraints including trees, vehicular routes, neighbouring properties and services below ground.
In simple terms, a carbon negative building will use less energy than it creates, which allows the excess energy to be fed into the National Grid, effectively making the building negative in energy use.
We have designed 21 environmentally responsible dwellings which are to be ‘carbon negative’ in energy use. The project will generate all its electricity from solar PV panels and among other things, the scheme is also designed to maximise passive solar gains, natural surveillance and be exemplar in the use of natural, breathable materials. The scheme has an innovative car club service where residents will share electric cars, allowing them to give up their private vehicles without sacrificing mobility.
The highly innovative project has been designed to exceed Code 6 of The Code for Sustainable Homes and planning approved was granted in January 2010.
Further informative links can be found on our website www.fitzarchitects.co.uk under the “useful stuff” section and you can keep up to date in our “blog” section with developments such as the Reed Street project, one of the UK’s most advanced housing schemes.
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PLANNING
Following our first article in December, we received several emails about planning permission. The questions ranged from domestic extensions in a conservation area to simply inserting a new window in your house. This month we will concentrate on planning in relation to domestic properties. The advice given below can differ from site to site, and it is always beneficial to seek the opinion of the local planning department before planning an extension.
Do I need planning approval?
New regulations came into effect on 1st October 2008 which now means that most homeowners do not need to obtain planning permission when extending their homes subject of course to certain size and height limits and location. This includes the installation of solar panels, converting a garage, adding a conservatory and inserting new windows, depending on the status of your house and where it is situated. These changes only apply houses and do not apply to flats, maisonettes or commercial buildings.
In some locations, ‘permitted development rights’ are more restricted. If you live in a Conservation Area, a National Park or an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, you will need to apply for planning permission for certain types of work which do not need an application in other areas. There are also different requirements if the property is a listed building.
A great first step in finding out whether you require planning permission is the government’s planning portal website: http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/public/tools/house which includes some really helpful information and interactive diagrams relating to extending your home.
Failure to obtain planning permission
The failure to obtain planning permission or comply with the details of an approval is commonly known as a ‘planning breach’. If the breach involves a previously rejected development (or the retrospective application fails) the council can issue an enforcement notice requiring you to put things back as they were.
Greater Flexibility for Planning Permissions
Under new secondary legislation coming into force on 1st October it will be possible to apply to extend the period in which a planning permission can be implemented by a further three years, as long as the permission is still valid when the application is made. These measures will be available for both minor and major planning permissions.
As such, these new ‘extension’ applications are a significantly more cost-effective way of protecting existing permissions than a standard re-application.
Building Regulations
Building regulations will generally apply if you want to build an extension to your home. However, conservatories are normally exempt when they meet a number of conditions.
Your Responsibilities
With all building work, the owner of the property (or land) in question is ultimately responsible for complying with the relevant planning rules and building regulations (regardless of the need to apply for planning permission and/or building regulations approval or not). Therefore, failure to comply with the relevant rules will result in the owner being liable for any remedial action (which could go as far as demolition and/or restoration)
The general advice is to always discuss your proposals with the relevant Local Planning Authority and Building Control Service before starting work. There are also other considerations ‘before you start work’ such as health and safety requirements and additional permissions that may need to be granted such as rights of way or listed buildings consent.
We can offer advice on planning permission, building regulations and whether or not you need them in the first place. There’s a free visit to your home to provide design ideas for any new extensions up for grabs to the reader who answers our monthly trivia question.
Last month’s question was “What is the name of the bridge at the entrance to the Hudson Dock in the Port of Sunderland and what is it famous for?” The answer was The Gladstone Bridge – the world’s first aluminium bascule bridge.
When was the first ever Wearmouth Bridge completed and opened to traffic?
Please email any questions or your answer to craig@fitzarchitects.co.uk and we look forward to answering them.
Further informative links can be found on our website under the “useful stuff” section and you can keep up to date in our “blog” section with developments such as one of the UK’s most advanced housing schemes in South Tyneside at our new website www.fitzarchitects.co.uk
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Recent Entries
- Parents are working class heroes for day
- Fitz win the 4HG Special Innovation Award
- HMO LEGISLATION in the Sunderland Echo Property Supplement
- A BUILDING REGULATION UPDATE in the Sunderland Echo Property Supplement
- DEVELOPING WITH WILDLIFE in the Sunderland Echo Property Supplement
- Fitz Architects sponsor the juniors at Westoe Rugby Club
- City of Sunderland’s new memorial wall revealed
- Fitz win both categories at the regional North-East Business Awards
- SUSTAINABILITY in the Sunderland Echo Property Supplement
- PLANNING in the Sunderland Echo Property Supplement
- Fitz Architects secure planning permission for 21 Code 3 / 4 affordable dwellings in Berwick – 19 Jan 2010
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