Building regulation and sustainable housing. Part 1: a critique of Part L of the Building Regulations 1995 for England and Wales

This paper presents a critique of the energy efficiency aspects of the Building Regulations for England and Wales as they relate to dwellings. It is argued that a significant improvement in the regulations is required if large reductions in CO₂ emissions are to be achieved in the first half of the next century and that considerable scope for regulation improvement exists (almost 90 per cent reductions in space heating are achievable). The paper identifies the shortcomings of the methods used to demonstrate compliance and proposes new approaches which would increase consistency and enable a clear programme of improvement to be established.