Mr. Anthony D. WrightTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects to publish the revisions to Part E of the Building Regulations; and if he will make a statement. [68178]
§ Mr. LesliePart E of the Building Regulations sets standards for the sound insulation between new homes. I propose to publish amendments to part E of the Regulations and the supporting documents in the autumn of this year. There will be a requirement in the regulations for testing the sound insulation of a sample of new homes on each site.
The requirement for sound insulation testing will apply to houses, flats, hostel and hotel accommodation, whether purpose built or formed by conversion of other types of building. For new hostel and hotel types of accommodation, and houses, flats, hostel and hotel accommodation formed by conversion of other types of building, I anticipate that the requirement will come into force on 1 July 2003. For new houses and flats only, I anticipate that it will come into force on 1 January 2004.
The reason for this later date is that I have asked the House Builders Federation to develop Robust Standard Details for the sound insulation of separating walls and floors for use in new houses and flats. These Robust Standard Details must provide consistently good performance, and so will not need routine testing.
Officials and the Building Regulations Advisory Committee will assess whether the House Builders Federation has achieved this objective. If satisfied that this scheme might work successfully, then I will put the proposals out to public consultation. If this does not raise any unforeseen issues, I would intend to amend the Regulations to allow Robust Standard Details to be used as an alternative to testing. Otherwise, I anticipate that testing will be introduced on 1 January 2004.
645WMindful of the need not to overburden business with unnecessary administration, we want to give the construction industry a chance to prove that their preferred system will work. However, we are not prepared to compromise on consumer issues. If Robust Standard Details do not prove effective, testing will be introduced.
The consultation on Part E also included a proposal to transfer the protection of new housing from external noise from the Town and Country Planning System to the Building Regulations system. We have decided not to proceed with the proposal as part of this amendment. However, we are continuing to explore whether we should pursue this at a later date.