eNewsletter from Angus Council Building Standards Team - March 2024

Angus Council sent this bulletin at 13-03-2024 09:00 AM GMT

Welcome to our March 2024 Newsletter

This newsletter is all about change!

Changes in fees, regulations and our team. We hope this helps keep you informed but remember you can contact us directly should you have any specific questions.

Fee Increases on the 1st April 2024

Following a Public Consultation in 2023, Scottish Government have announced that building warrant fees will increase from 1 April 2024.

Fees are being increased to support the changes being introduced to strengthen the Building Standards system and to support recommendations made by the expert review panels on Compliance & Enforcement and Fire Safety in 2018.

The increase for the lowest Building Warrant fees rate will increase from £150 to £200. The set fee increments for each fee band above a value of building works of £10,000 will increase by an average of 14%. With the increase in the set increment between fee bands, the building warrant fees will increase an average of 15% for building works valued up to £1 million with the greatest percentage increase being towards the lower value of work bands under £10,000.

Fixed discounts for Certification of Design and Construction will also increase proportionally to the increase in fees in the same value of work band.

A fee table will be published shortly on our website and Scottish Government are working on an updated fee calculator within the E-Building Standards Portal. Should you have any queries in the meantime please do not hesitate to contact us.

In addition we are undertaking an exercise to review all our ancillary fees in line with inflationary increases and comparing with other local authorities across Scotland. The fees being reviewed are in relation to Extension to Warrants, Letters of Comforts, copies of drawings/part II of the register, and applications for temporary raised structures. Once agreed these will also be published online with a likely start date of 1st April 2024.

Regulation change on the 1st April 2024

Two big changes on the same day...we promise this is no April fools day joke!

The 2024 Technical Handbooks come into force on the 1st April 2024 and introduce standard 6.11 (Heating and hot water – direct emission heating system), associated amendments to standard 6.1 and guidance to standards 6.1, 6.8 and 7.1. The handbooks are otherwise unchanged from the June 2023 (December addendum) version. Due to the limited nature of the changes we are not planning any formal dissemination but should you have any specific questions please contact our team who will be happy to help.

The revisions are intended to prohibit the use of heating and cooling systems, located within the curtilage of any new building, which produce more than a negligible level of greenhouse gas emissions. This follows staged consultation in 2021 and 2022 on proposals to end the use of fossil and biofuel in new buildings. Read more information on the introduction of this ‘New Build Heat Standard’ as part of the broader Heat in Buildings strategy.

Designers seeking to comply with the standards or to submit a building warrant on or after 1 April 2024 should refer to and download the technical handbooks below:

What makes a valid application?

The Building Standards Division of the Scottish Government have confirmed that for a building warrant application to be considered 'received', the application must be submitted with the prescribed fee paid. For an application to be considered 'valid' it must have sufficient information for the verifier to undertake a substantive technical check and be able to issue a first report if one is necessary.

Therefore, please ensure any applications submitted before the 1st April both have adequate information to assess and the prescribed fee paid with cleared funds. Any problems with the above will unfortunately mean the application will be considered received on or after the 1st April and we will have to apply the new technical handbooks and request a further fee.

Team changes

Please welcome to the team both Ryan Keillor, our Modern Apprentice and Michael Neill (Mikey) our new Temporary Trainee Building Standards Technician. Both Ryan and Mikey are doing great, gaining knowledge and experience out on site and assessing applications. Building Standards puts a lot of emphasis on training and mentoring new Technicians and Officers for the future so if you see them out on site with other members of the team….say hi.

A huge congratulations also goes to Andy Reid and Kris Ferrier who have very recently been appointed as our new Building Standards Team Leaders. Andy and Kris both have a wealth of experience and have a positive 'can do' attitude to their roles and serving our customers. We wish them all the best in their new roles.

Kris is leading the 'Coastal Team' including Montrose, Arbroath, Letham, Carnoustie, Monifieth. Andy is in charge of the 'Landward Team' including Forfar, Brechin, the Glens, Glamis and Birkhill/Tealing areas.

We are currently in the process of recruiting 2 Officers and will keep you informed of the outcome.

For further information and contact details visit our website at https://www.angus.gov.uk/planning_and_building/building_standards/contact_building_standards

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