Document
Sustainable Design Statement
Shows how a scheme answers your council's sustainability and climate policies. Several councils require one for anything that creates new floorspace, with no lower threshold.
- The tier this usually sits in
- MinorThe tier this usually sits in
- Wren, for a case at that tier
- £1,995Wren, for a case at that tier
- Specimen you can read in full
- PublishedSpecimen you can read in full
- Sections inside it
- 6Sections inside it
What is inside
Section by section.
- 01The new floorspace created, which is what engages the requirement
- 02The council's adopted sustainability and climate policies, quoted from the adopted text
- 03Energy: reducing demand, supplying efficiently, then using renewables, and how the scheme answers each step
- 04Water efficiency
- 05Materials and embodied carbon
- 06Overheating and climate resilience
When it is required
Why a council asks for this.
No national rule requires this document. It is a local validation requirement, and whether your council asks for it is read from that council's own published list.
The specimen is written for a conversion, not a new build, because that is where this document is hardest to get right: a material change of use engages a different list of Building Regulations requirements from new build, and a statement written to the new-build pattern will claim compliance with one requirement that does not apply and miss several that do.
| Required when |
|---|
| The council's validation list requires one for new floorspace |
| Local policy sets energy or carbon standards above building regulations |
Asked and answered
About the Sustainable Design Statement.
Is this the same as an energy statement?
Often alongside
Documents that usually travel with it.
Explains the design thinking behind a scheme and how people will get to and around it. Required by statute for certain applications, and the first thing a design officer reads.
Establishes which flood zone a site sits in, from every source of flooding, and shows how the scheme responds to that risk over its lifetime.
Find out whether your site needs one.
The appraisal names the route, lists the documents that route requires, and prices the set before you commit to anything.