Policy information sourced from Barking and Dagenham Borough Wide Development Policies DPD

POLICY BR1: ENVIRONMENTAL BUILDING STANDARDS

All developments are expected to meet high standards of sustainable design and construction.

Applicants for all major and strategic developments must produce an environmental assessment such as the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) or the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes showing the likely rating to be achieved under a formal BREEAM or Code for Sustainable Homes assessment.

The following minimum standards for housing developments are encouraged:
Assessment MethodStrategic DevelopmentMajor Development
Code for Sustainable HomesLevel 4 - 5Level 3 - 4

The range of standards set out above reflect the fact that the Council will apply the higher minimum standards as the plan period progresses, reflecting industry advancements and expectations by regional and central government bodies.

Minimum standards for non-housing developments:
Assessment MethodStrategic DevelopmentMajor Development
BREEAMExcellentVery Good - Excellent

Minor non-housing developments are encouraged wherever possible to seek and achieve very good BREEAM standards or higher.

Where there is no standard assessment procedure in place for a particular type of development, applicants for all major and strategic developments are expected to undertake a bespoke BREEAM assessment to ensure that high environmental building standards are met.

For major and strategic developments, there may be exceptional circumstances, for example due to economic viability, where achieving targets in this policy is not appropriate. In such cases applicants should liaise with the Council at an early stage to discuss a suitable strategy for ensuring high environmental building standards are maintained.

If, in the future, appropriate environmental building standards are developed at a national level (e.g. through the establishment of A Code for Industrial Buildings to replace BREEAM for offices), this will supersede relevant parts of this policy.

For more information please see the Borough Wide Development Policies DPD