APPENDIX 13
Memorandum from NHBC
1.1 NHBC is the UK's leading warranty and
insurance provider for new homes. Established more than 65 years
ago, our role is to raise standards in the new house-building
industry and provide consumer protection for new house buyers.
1.2 NHBC's 10-year Buildmark cover provides
the most comprehensive protection for new homes in the UK. There
are approximately 1.7 million homes currently covered by the policy
and there were more than 170,000 Buildmark certificates issued
to new homebuyers in the last year.
OVERVIEW
2.1 NHBC supports a positive approach to
sustainability and is actively involved in enabling and facilitating
the improvement in the environmental performance of the house-building
industry and new homes, their built environment and its supporting
infrastructure. An appendix showing some of the areas in which
we are involved follows our submission.
2.2 One of the key strands of sustainable
development is "social progress which recognises the needs
of everyone". The effect of the vast under-supply of housing
in the UK is that many people are unable to "get a foot"
on the housing ladder. If more new homes are to be built to address
the consequent social need, then it is essential that we take
account of all relevant environmental considerations.
2.3 Amongst other things, sustainable principles
demand that houses will not require replacement or major repairs
prematurely—this avoids waste of building materials, effort
and energy. NHBC's fundamental role is to ensure the quality of
new homes. NHBC works to ensure that new-built and converted homes
are designed and constructed in accordance with good technical
standards so that increasing housing output does not lead to a
reduction in the quality, widespread failure, and the need for
wasteful repair or reconstruction.
MODERN METHODS
OF CONSTRUCTION
3.1 NHBC is actively involved in the growing
use of modern methods of construction by the house-building industry.
NHBC supports those robust and well-researched changes in house-building
technology which lead to more efficient construction. However,
based on our extensive experience we also know precisely why it
is important to balance the advantages with potential risks. Some
modern methods, such as the thousands of well-performing, well-designed
timber frame and steel frame systems in the UK, have little risk
of technical failure attached.
3.2 We do however, need to raise awareness
in the industry of how seemingly innocuous design changes to even
these relatively well established systems can lead to technical
risk.
3.3 A good recent example is the collapse
of the housing warranty programme in British Columbia, Canada,
which was the direct result of a few simple but ill-considered
design changes to an established form of timber frame construction
leading to massive failures. Worryingly, the same technical failure
has now been witnessed in parts of the USA and in New Zealand.
3.4 An example nearer home is the legacy
of many PRC (precast reinforced concrete) houses and LPS (large
panel system) flats built up to the 1960s. These have not proved
as satisfactory in use or as durable as other homes using "traditional"
methods built during the same period, and many have already been
demolished or have required extensive repair.
3.5 NHBC Standards take a positive and pro-active
approach in such areas, to ensure good performance in use and
so make a valuable contribution to sustainability.
CONVERSION SCHEMES
4.1 The opportunity to create viable new
homes from worn out existing buildings shouldn't be overlooked
and "recycling" in this way is a positive response to
the challenge of building sustainable homes. A growing number
of examples of highly successful conversion and renovation schemes
across the country have helped to regenerate local communities.
4.2 Homes registered through NHBC's Conversions
and Renovations Scheme are assessed and converted or renovated
in accordance with good technical standards and inspected as works
progress by our experienced inspectors. We seek to ensure high
quality housing not requiring premature repair. The principles
applied, such as by the NHBC scheme (with the benefit of its ten-year
warranty), should be encouraged for all conversion and renovation
projects.
"ECOHOMES"
5.1 We would strongly recommend that the
appropriate tool for assessing the sustainability of homes is
BRE's "EcoHomes", which is based directly on BREEAM
and, together with its companion "Green Guide to Housing
Specification" was sponsored by NHBC. NHBC provided funding
and worked with BRE, industry and stakeholders to ensure a living
tool capable of ongoing development as knowledge advanced. It
has taken only three or four years to become well established,
being both understood by the industry and a requirement in most
social housing.
5.2 The rating scheme provides the flexibility
necessary for designers to ensure that all their developments
achieve enhanced levels of performance, and could sit alongside
SAP in the Building Regulations as a means of demonstrating compliance
in the field of sustainability. We also note that the Sustainable
Buildings Task Group has recently recommended to Government that
a Code of Sustainable Building based on BREEAM (including EcoHomes)
be adopted.
CONCLUSION
6. Finally, we believe that an over-arching
national strategy will be essential to achieve the imperative
of major advances in the field of sustainability. We see a pressing
need for the complementary functions of planning and building
control to be clarified and focused within such strategy to eliminate
confusion, contradiction and overlap, particularly as building
regulations move to embrace sustainability explicitly for the
first time.
7. As can be seen from our response, NHBC
has a long history setting and overseeing the application of standards
for new homes, and is also involved in a wide range of activities
impacting on sustainability. If, therefore, the Committee would
like to explore any issue further with us, whether in writing
or in person, we would be happy to make the necessary arrangements.
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