On 13th December 2006, the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) launched the Code for Sustainable Homes - a new national standard for sustainable design and construction of new homes. Since the 1st of May the developer of any new home in England must have a mandatory rating against the Code. The Code measures the 'whole home' as a complete package, assessing its sustainability against nine categories: - Energy/CO2
- Water
- Materials
- Surface water run-off
- Waste
- Pollution
- Health and well-being
- Management
- Ecology
The minimum standards for Code compliance have been set above the requirements of Building Regulations. The Code is intended to signal the future direction of Building Regulations in relation to home carbon emissions from and energy use, providing greater regulatory certainty for the homebuilding industry. The Code uses a 1 to 6 star rating system to show the overall sustainability performance of a new home. It sets minimum standards for energy and water use at each level, which provides valuable information to home buyers and offers builders a tool with which to differentiate themselves in sustainability terms. The levels of energy efficiency for the code (standard percentage better than Part L1A of the 2006 Building Regulations) are: Code level 1 - 10%
Code level 2 - 18%
Code level 3 - 25%
Code level 4 - 44%
Code level 5 - 100%
Code level 6 - zero carbon
| We have recently launched a suite of publications that provide guidance and solutions for meeting the energy efficiency requirements of level 3, level 4 and levels 5&6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes: |
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This publication is the first in a suite of Energy Saving Trust guides that provide technical guidance on designing and building new homes that meet the energy requirements of the Code for Sustainable Homes.This guide addresses energy efficiency measures to meet, and in some instances, exceed minimum measures set down in code level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. |
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This guide addresses energy efficiency measures to meet, and in some instances, exceed minimum measures set down in code level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. |
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This publication is the third in the suite of code guides. This publication will help housing professionals meet energy efficiency requirements of levels 5 and 6 . | | 
