Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the building regulations on trickle vents are consistent with making houses more efficient.

In December 2021, Government published its response to the Future Buildings Standard consultation, including a suite of new regulations and standards to improve energy efficiency, ventilation and other matters covered by the Building Regulations

When windows are replaced in existing dwellings, it is necessary to ensure that the ventilation provision in the dwelling is no worse than it was before the work was carried out. A common way of meeting this requirement will be to install trickle ventilators. Approved Document F: volume 1 sets out the detail of the new standard

The purpose of ensuring ventilation provision is maintained is to protect the health and safety of people in the dwellings they occupy. The purpose of the new guidance is to make sure that any ventilation lost when replacing the window is replaced with purposeful ventilation. The standards do not require any more ventilation to be provided than is necessary. An assessment of energy demand due to replacement windows with ventilators can be found within the final stage Part F impact assessment

As part of the standards published in December 2021, we also increased the thermal efficiency standard for various types of work to existing buildings, including when replacing windows

New guidance and requirements for Part F and Part L of the Building Regulations are due to come into effect on 15 June 2022

Further information can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-future-buildings-standard