Intrigued by this story, which the BBC got hold of this morning. We are all now well used to hearing complaints that one government department has no idea what another is doing and that contradictory policy statements are consequently two a penny. But here we have an example of the same department being at cross purposes with itself. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the name Caroline Flint pops up again.
The subject at issue is the adoption of the Lifetime Homes standard. Flint is announcing that she wants the standard to become compulsory in all new homes. Whatever the merits or otherwise of this move, what she probably doesn’t realise is that buried within the Code for Sustainable Homes are loads of points for adopting the very same standard and that, in order to score the requisite 90% needed for Code Level 6, housebuilders are going to have to build in Lifetime Homes standards in any event. And by 2016, so we are told, Code Level 6 will be mandatory for all new homes.
It's the energy efficiency requirements within Code level 6 that will become mandatory rather than the level itself from 2016.
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