Sustainable Building – Advice For Small Development Proposals Has Become More Affordable
In the UK the requirements to construct sustainable homes turn out to be much more and more onerous. Proposals for medium and big development have been subject to strict environmental and sustainability requirements for some time now. However, recently even planning applications for small development such as single houses want to be accompanied with a raft of documentation, such as evidence that a particular level of the Code for Sustainable Homes will be achieved, an energy statement and a flood risk assessment.
The trouble is that most of the requirements have been written with significant development projects in mind. The complexity of the matter makes purchasing in specialist advice inevitable. The consultants that present the advice are also employed to dealing with big developments. All this originally meant that the cost of the suggestions required to prepare the supporting documents was out of sync with the size and complexity of the proposed development.
It is now a couple of years considering that the initial of these requirements had been imposed on all new development proposals and the sector, both planning officers and consultants, has now learned how to address the sustainability requirements of little development proposals efficiently. For instance the advice needed to submit an adequate energy statements is now streamlined and standardized and the cost has come down from around £2000, to under £300 for the smallest proposals.
The exact same is true for flood risk assessments. Where the price for the most simple advisory report in a low risk region would be around £1500 a year ago, right now it is possible to get a fundamental report for a 1 unit residential plot in a low flood risk region for under £500.
I think this is a very good factor. For small development proposals the price for these supporting documents employed to be out of proportion. At last it becomes probable for promoters of tiny developments to develop highly sustainable buildings and acquire suitable advice at an cost-effective cost.