Proposed changes to the government’s Standard Assessment Procedure

This consultation seeks views on proposed changes to the Standard Assessment Procedure, the government’s tool for assessing the energy and environmental performance of dwellings.

SAP is used to underpin the delivery of a number of key climate change initiatives, including:

• the Building Regulations for England and the Devolved Administrations
• HM Treasury’s Stamp Duty exemption for zero carbon homes
• benchmark ratings for Northern Ireland’s House Conditions Survey
• Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and Energy Performance Certificates
• the Code for Sustainable Homes
• Warm Front
• Local authority stock reporting; etc

Looking forward, SAP will also be used to help deliver the Green Deal (GD), the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). It will also be used to support the 2013 Amendment to Part L of the Building Regulations for England. The revised version of the SAP (to be known as SAP 2012) will be used for Building Regulation compliance assessment purposes when the 2013 Part L Amendment comes into force. Other users will adopt the revised version at a time to suit themselves.

Given this diverse set of uses it is necessary to periodically review the SAP model to ensure that it continues to meet both existing and new user requirements. Another objective is to improve further the accuracy of energy performance assessments.

This consultation seeks views on the five primary amendments, which are supported by technical papers, and on a number of other minor amendments. We would, therefore, like to hear from as wide a range of interest groups and individuals as possible, including:

• organisations that employ SAP for specific purposes, i.e. building regulation compliance, production of energy performance certificates, stock assessments, pre and post action evaluations, etc.
• those in the business of delivering dwelling energy performance assessments; and
• other interest groups, such as, designers, property developers, product manufacturers, academics, local authorities, product test laboratories, quality assurance organisations, fuel suppliers, housing professionals, casual and other users

During the SAP review process DECC received a number of recommendations for change from commercial organisations. Whilst this input was welcomed it was not possible, for a variety of reasons, to take forward those recommendations. For further information see the BRE: Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP 2012) web page.

• SAP 2012 background documents (links to BRE website)
• Older background documents (links to BRE website)
• Reponses to HHIC etc (links to BRE website)