The Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH)
The CfSH is an in depth assessment methodology for the environmental impact of your development and ties in closely to the SAP assessment as energy consumption reduction is a primary environmental concern. There are nine different areas of assessment including energy and carbon emissions, water, materials, surface water run off, waste, pollution, health and wellbeing, management and ecology. At the moment all local authority housing is assessed under the CfSH and local authorities can request reaching a certain code level as a planning condition. The code is otherwise a voluntary application used by developers to signify and differentiate their development. The higher the code level of performance the better the development will be to the environment.
The government announced on February 27th 2008 that as from May 2008 it will be mandatory to declare whether the development has been assessed or not by the code for sustainable homes. This will form part of the Home Information Pack and will give the buyer of the dwelling information about the environmental impact of the dwelling they are about to purchase.
This does not mean that the development has to be assessed under the code it simply means that it has to be declared if the assessment has been conducted or not. If the code assessment is not conducted and the dwelling is assessed under the mandatory Building Control methods a statement of non-assessment and a "nil-rating certificate" will be needed for the dwelling to go into the Home Information Pack.
Please contact Gen-Assess to discuss your project