Building Regulations - What are they? - North West Leicestershire District Council

Standard Setter

The Building Regulations set standards for certain elements of building work in England. Apart from two issues, they are nothing to do with Planning legislation or Planning Permission.

Many people, including builders, think the Building Regulations tell you how to do something. That’s not the case, the regulations set the basic standard, the onus is on you to justify what you build meets the standards by using accepted guidance, product data etc.

You would be surprised by how simple the standards are. To meet those standards, the government has published a series of guidance documents called ‘Approved Documents’, and these give detailed guidance on meeting the standards. Of course you can use other guides, provided you can demonstrate that they meet the standard in the Regulations.

Building Regulations apply to buildings, and not caravans, or land, etc, although contaminated land and access issues do apply to the wider 'plot' or access route to a building.

In essence, the Building Regulations apply to:-

Construction work to most buildings
Certain changes of use
Renovation or changes to thermal elements (walls, roofs, floors etc.)
Underpinning

What do they cover?

The Building Regulations set standards for:-

Those two issues that have links to Planning? In its wisdom the government used planning policy and planning permission to set local standards for access and us, and water efficiency in new dwellings.