Following the interim report of the Building Regulation and Fire Safety by Dame Judith Hackitt, the independent (Final Report) has now been published, please refer to the below link for further information.
Security
On the 1st October 2015, Regulation Part Q became applicable to newly built dwellings in England. Part Q covers the standards for doors and windows to resist physical attack by a burglar. It includes standards on being both sufficiently robust and fitted with appropriate hardware to provide reasonable provisions to resist unauthorised access to any dwelling or any part of a building from which access can be gained to a flat within the building.
Approved Document Q provides guidance on the following:
All easily accessible doorsets, including garage doors that provide access into the dwelling should be secure doorsets in accordance with paragraphs 1.2 – 1.4 of Approved Document Q1.
Ground floor, basement and any other easily accessible windows, including rooflights should be secure windows in accordance with paragraphs 2.2 – 2.3 of Approved Document Q2.
Broadband
On the 1st October 2015, Regulation Part R - High speed network infrastructure became applicable to all buildings in England. Part R covers the standards for broadband connection.
This requirement applies to all new buildings (including dwellings) and those subject to major renovation work to provide in-built physical infrastructure so that, in future, copper or fibre-optic cables or wireless device capable of delivering broadband speed greater than 30 Mbps can be installed.
These provisions are applicable from the service providers access point to the buildings network termination point only.