The Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024: Island Communities Impact Assessment

Background

7. The building standards system in Scotland is established by the Building (Scotland) Act 2003^[3] (the 2003 Act). The system regulates building work on new and existing buildings to provide buildings that meet reasonable standards which:

• secure the health, safety, welfare and convenience of persons in or about buildings and of others who may be affected by buildings or matters connected with buildings;
• further the conservation of fuel and power; and
• further the achievement of sustainable development.

8. Requirements applicable to building work are set through Building Regulations^[4] as a set of mandatory functional standards. These are simple statements on the outcomes which must be achieved when undertaking building work. These standards are supported by a body of guidance set out in Domestic and Non-domestic Technical Handbooks^[5]. This published guidance assists by defining the scope of action expected under each standard, providing one or more examples of how compliance with the standard can be achieved. Noting that the standards can also be met through use of solutions not included in published guidance. Standards are defined and applied at a national level.

9. Whilst the building standards system does enable flexibility in how compliance with standards is demonstrated, the current published Technical Handbooks do not provide alternative approaches based specifically upon the geographical location of construction work.

10. Digital Connectivity Division has been working with the Building Standards Division, acting on behalf of Scottish Ministers, to prepare and update building standards legislation and guidance documents, conducting any necessary research and formally consulting on changes around broadband infrastructure requirements in new build developments.

11. Broadband infrastructure is included within section 4 (safety) of the Building Standards Technical Handbooks. The current requirements were introduced in the Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2016 to transpose Article 8 of the Directive 2014/61/EU. This required Member States to ensure that newly constructed buildings are equipped with a “high-speed-ready in-building physical infrastructure” to facilitate the cost-effective installation of cabling providing a minimum broadband speed of 30 megabits per second (Mbps).

12. Based on the technology available at the time of the 2016 Regulations the standard recognises this could be delivered through fibre to the cabinet (FTTC), hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) of full-fibre to the premise (FTTP) connections.

13. The proposed changes will amend building standards so that buildings and building units must be designed and constructed in such a way that:

a. each building unit is equipped with a network termination point for a gigabit-capable public electronic communications network;

b. gigabit-capable physical infrastructure from a network termination point to a building access point or common access point is provided;

c. gigabit-capable physical infrastructure from a building access point or common access point to a network distribution point is provided within the curtilage of the development site;

d. a means of connecting each network termination point to a gigabit-capable electronic communications network is provided, to the extent this is reasonably practicable.

For non-domestic buildings requirements a) and b) above apply.

14. The 2024 Amendment Regulations, introducing updated safety standards, are expected to be laid in the Scottish Parliament in September 2024 with a proposed coming into force date of 1 January 2025. Supporting guidance is expected to be published in September 2024.

15. The legislation will amend building standards in Scotland to align with the position implemented by the UK Government in England. Although telecommunications legislation and regulation are reserved matters to the UK Government, a decision was made to implement their policy by amending building regulations limiting it’s application to England only.

16. The Scottish Government has already embedded principles around digital connectivity in existing housing strategies such as Housing to 2040 and the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) benchmark. The Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) comprises a range of funding mechanisms to enable affordable housing providers to deliver homes for social rent, mid-market rent, and low cost home ownership in communities across Scotland to support local authorities’ Local Housing Strategies.

17. Guidance for local authorities and registered social landlords making grant applications through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme states that new build homes should be: ‘digitally-enabled – when a household gets the keys to their home they must be able to arrange for an internet connection to ‘go live’ without the internet service provider having to provide additional cabling to the premises. These connections should utilise the best available technology and, where it is not possible for a gigabit-capable technology to be provided immediately, the physical infrastructure should be installed to support retrospective deployment’.

18. These regulations put on a statutory footing the requirement to provide gigabit-capable connectivity for all new build developments regardless of tenure up to the cost cap of £2,000 per premise and include the same passive infrastructure requirements as the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.