Customers of the manufacturer Listers gained a lowdown on regulatory change, product innovation and market forecasts, at its customer partnership day. Held at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London, the event began with a question and answer session on the impacts of parts F and L of the UK building regulations. Questions were answered by Paul Kennington, technical director of Veka and chair of the Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF)’s systems group; Jon Vanstone, chair of Certass; and Listers’ managing director, Roy Frost.
The session included an overview of the revised Part F, which introduces new requirements from 15 June to ensure new-build and replacement installations deliver minimum levels of ventilation, including a necessity for all habitable rooms and kitchens to achieve a minimum 8,000mm² equivalent area (EA), and 4,000mm² EA in bathrooms. Audience members questioned the logic underpinning the legislation and the practicalities of enforcement, particularly where homeowners were unenthusiastic.
While acknowledging potential contradictions in the relationship between parts L (conservation of energy) and F (ventilation), Jon warned against reliance on customer disclaimers or indemnities: “You’ve got different drivers at play that don’t really match,” he explained. “At the same time, the consumer still doesn’t understand the benefits, and that makes pitching trickle vents to the end user far more difficult.
“The fact, however, remains that poor ventilation has a massive toll on public health and the NHS, with billions spent on chronic health conditions. Things have to change.
“Installers should take evidence of whatever they are taking out. Do some basic assessment of the property, look for issues and look at what the homeowner is doing, because there are a lot of retrofit projects going on. There may be other ways to do the ventilation.”
Paul argued that ventilation was fundamental to healthy living spaces, suggesting that the legislation created an opportunity to upsell the benefits to end users. Listers’ managing director, Roy, said that he believed the industry needed to be better at engaging with government, and encouraging installers to participate in the consultation process. He also called for greater collaboration between representative bodies.
“We need to speak with one voice,” said Roy. “We’ve got trickle vent manufacturers, sealed unit manufacturers, glass companies, systems companies – people who are individually keen to sell more of their individual products and who are pushing their individual agendas. I’d like to see individual businesses and organisations within our industry come together and approach things more collaboratively, to get our message across to government.”
