Building Standards Division: House Builders Survey

The Scottish Government Building Standards Division (BSD) is currently undertaking a research project around compliance of Section 6 Energy, of the Technical Handbook, focusing on the building fabric performance.

In 2019, The First Minister declared a global climate emergency, and there are increased demands to rapidly reduce carbon emissions across all sectors of society. It is acknowledged that previous revisions to the energy standards has resulted in a stepped change in the energy efficiency of new homes. However, the government is still seeking to further improve the energy performance of new buildings.

Work is underway to establish the next set of energy standards that will take effect in 2021 for all new buildings. You may also be aware of the commitment in the Programme for Government that sets out that all new homes must use renewable or low carbon heating from 2024. The Scottish Government will work with industry to develop regulations to deliver this.

In addition to increasing the standards that new buildings must meet, the government said there is also a need to increase assurance that current energy standards are being met and the ‘performance gap’ between designed and constructed buildings is reduced.

The purpose of the survey is to find out more about what compliance inspection and testing regimes are currently used on site to support compliance of the building fabric. The intention is that the information collected will contribute to the development of guidance to improve compliance with the energy standards and reduce the performance gap.

For the purposes of this research, please fill in ‘Type of business’, however if you wish to remain anonymous and do not wish to be contacted further by the Scottish Government, the other fields are optional.

Thank you for your time, the survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete.