Charnwood Borough Council

If you are intending to carry out building work on a property, it is likely that you will need Building Regulations consent.

The primary function of the Council's Building Control service is to make sure that buildings are properly designed and constructed so as to ensure the health, safety, welfare and convenience of people using them.
The system of Building Control has evolved (see History of Building Control) over hundreds of years of experience of buildings that are either dangerous or a health risk to the occupants, or are unacceptably inaccessible for disabled people or are otherwise environmentally unfriendly.

It is the responsibility of the Council's Building Control service therefore to apply the current requirements for the design of buildings through national standards known as Building Regulations.

The Council also offers the service of assessing new and existing dwellings for energy efficiency. This serves to produce the Energy Performance Certificate which is now required by law when a dwelling is either erected, re-sold and re-let.

Generally, the Building Regulations apply to all scales of development, from simple domestic work up to multi-million pound projects. For a broad outline of the types of building work to which the regulations apply, see Work to which the Building Regulations apply. In the case of building work to domestic properties, the link Domestic buildings will also be useful.

The Council also provides specific guidance at Building work self assessment on how you can work out for yourself whether the building work you are intending to carry out is subject to Building Regulations requirements.

It should be noted that you may also need Planning Permission (see Planning) for the work, but even if you have been granted this, this does not mean that you have obtained Building Regulations consent as well. The two are separate processes and need to be applied for independently.

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