My right honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Planning (John Healey) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I have today laid before the House regulations that make amendments to Parts L, F and J of the building regulations (conservation of fuel and power, means of ventilation and combustion appliances and fuel storage systems respectively). These amendments are scheduled to come into force on 1 October 2010, thereby allowing industry six months to prepare.

These amendments follow last year’s formal consultations on our proposals and statutory consultation with the Building Regulations Advisory Committee.

Part L of the building regulations set building standards that are important in delivering our zero carbon policies and will help to further reduce national energy demand, to meet our emission reduction targets in line with the Climate Change Act and to lower people’s fuel bills. We want energy efficient buildings, but we also want them to be healthy places to live and work in, which is why we are changing Parts F and J of the building regulations at the same time.

The Part L changes I am confirming today maintain the momentum towards zero carbon, delivering a 25 per cent improvement relative to current standards for every new home and 25 per cent improvement overall for new non-domestic buildings. These Part L changes also set out improved standards of energy efficiency when people elect to carry out work on existing homes and other properties such as replacing their windows or boilers with more efficient ones.

The changes to ventilation provisions in Part F are necessary to maintain good indoor air quality in new homes that will tend to become more air-tight because of the strengthened Part L standards. The Part F changes also introduce new requirements and guidance for installation and commissioning of ventilation systems. Similarly, changes to Part J are required to ensure that combustion appliances can continue to function safely in more air-tight homes. In addition, the Part J changes also remove technical disincentives to the wider use of biomass heating systems and introduce a provision for carbon monoxide alarms to be installed with all solid fuel appliances.

The impact assessments supporting these amendments will be published on 16 March. We are making these changes based on sound evidence and where we have judged them to be necessary in order to minimise disruption and additional regulatory burden.

Revisions to the relevant supporting technical guidance (approved documents and compliance guides) will be made available later this month, together with a summary of responses of the recent consultations on Parts L, F and J.

This statutory instrument also makes changes to the Building Regulations Competent Persons Schemes and minor technical amendments to Part G of the building regulations. The Part G and Competent Person Scheme amendments will take effect on 6 April 2010 and Approved Document G will be published later today and copies placed in the Library of the House.