Episode 199 - *Bonus* Legislation Changes & Updates coming up in 2026

This week we will be talking about legislation changes and general updates coming up in 2026. This episode content meets PC1 - Professionalism & PC3 - Legal Framework & Processes of the Part 3 Criteria.

Resources from today's episode:

Website:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-planning-and-infrastructure-bill/guide-to-the-planning-and-infrastructure-bill
• https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-future-homes-and-buildings-standards-2023-consultation/the-future-homes-and-buildings-standards-2023-consultation
• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/building-safety-levy-guidance/section-1-introduction
• https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2026/9780348276459/pdfs/ukdsi_9780348276459_en.pdf
• https://part-z.uk/
• https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-common-sense-approach-to-environmental-regulation-to-support-new-homes-drive
• https://www.cic.org.uk/news/cic-announces-approval-of-new-british-standard-on-sustainability-competence

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Transcript

Episode 199:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast. 

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I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we will be talking about legislation changes and general updates coming up in 2026. Todays’ episode meets PC1 & PC3 of the Part 3 Criteria.

2026 sits at the intersection of at least four major policy drives: 

• Accelerating housing delivery, 
• Tightening safety, 
• Decarbonising new homes, 
• And sharpening sustainability expectations.

For architects and the profession, that means design decisions taken now on 2025–2027 projects will land directly in the path of new rules on planning routes, housing standards, building safety levies, and carbon and biodiversity reporting.

So in this episode, the focus is on six themes:

• Planning and the Planning and Infrastructure Act
• Housing and the Future Homes Standard timeline
• Building Safety Regulator reforms and the Building Safety Levy
• Embodied carbon and whole‑life carbon assessment
• Environmental, BNG and wider sustainability regulation
• Professional competence

So starting with Planning and the Planning and Infrastructure Act:

We briefly discussed this new Bill back in episode 168 where we discussed that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was first introduced in March 2025 and was in the process of going through parliament to become law. Well the bill has now received Royal Assent and has become law as of December 2025. It will now be described as the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025.

Just to quickly refresh you on the core objectives of the act:

The government describes this Act as central to its “Plan for Change” and to “get Britain building again”. It has three headline aims:

• Support the delivery of 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England during this Parliament.
• Fast‑track 150 planning decisions on major economic infrastructure projects.
• Help deliver the Clean Power 2030 target by speeding up key clean energy schemes.

The key aim of the act is explicitly about removing “blockages and delays” in the system, particularly around infrastructure, land assembly and strategic housing. So key planning changes you will see in practice across 2026, is through secondary legislation and guidance that will be rolled out to operationalise the Act. The sorts of changes you are likely to encounter include:

• Streamlined national infrastructure decisions introducing amendments to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects regime to reduce consultation duplication and procedural delay.
• Stronger, more flexible Development Corporations providing a refreshed framework so Development Corporations can more easily deliver large new communities and regeneration schemes.
• Adjustments to compulsory purchase measures to speed up vesting of land, simplify notices, including greater use of electronic service, and make compulsory purchase more efficient for large housing and infrastructure schemes.

What this means for the profession:

• Practices should expect more use of development corporation‑led or development zone approaches for new settlements.
• Expect clients to push harder on programme, assuming that the new planning routes will be quicker, even where the detail of secondary legislation is still bedding in.
• Expect more interaction between local plan‑making, strategic infrastructure corridors, and large housing numbers in the region.

You can refer to back to episode 168 if you want to learn more about the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, now Act. I will be following up with further episode updates later in the year.

Now let’s move onto the second key theme of today’s episode and update coming up in 2026. The Future Homes Standard timeline:

We spoke about this standard as well back in episode 72 which the government introduced back in 2019 as a 2025 commitment to ensure newly built homes are future-proofed with low carbon, energy efficient heating systems leading towards the Future Homes Standard roadmap to reduce energy usage and greenhouse emission of new buildings. 

Well now the government has a clearer timeline in its implementation as it clearly wasn’t rolled out in 2025. There has been a lot of noise about dates, so it is worth pinning this down carefully. Current industry‑facing guidance and government‑linked sources indicate:

• That the final Future Homes Standard regulations are expected in autumn 2025.
• Off the back of that, legislation is then expected to be laid out so that the new regulations become law in December 2026.
• Then a 12‑month transitional period will run until December 2027 from the implementation of the standard in 2026, after which all new homes commenced will need to comply with the Future Homes Standard.
• From 2028, it is anticipated that essentially all new housing developments will be delivering homes to Future Homes Standard‑level performance with low‑carbon heat from the outset.

A key item to highlight is that any sites registered before the December 2026 cut‑off can, under transitional arrangements, continue to build to Part L 2021 as long as they start within the defined window. Sites or plots registered later will need to comply with Future Homes Standard.

For architects and practices working on housing schemes in 2025 and 2026, this creates a design and programme tension in that clients will likely try and fast track projects to be under Part L 2021 to secure registrations before December 2026. So they should potentially expect workload shifts over the next year and be prepared for pressure from clients. 

You can refer to back to episode 72 if you want to learn more about the Future Homes Standard. I will be following up with further episode updates later in the year.

Now let’s move onto the third key theme of today’s episode and update coming up in 2026. The Building safety regulator reforms and the Building Safety Levy:

We spoke about these changes again back in episodes 177 and 178. As you already know, the Building Safety Act has already reshaped dutyholder roles, gateways and liability for higher‑risk buildings, but 2026 introduces further structural and financial changes.

Up to now, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has sat within the Health and Safety Executive, however, the government is now considering new leadership, funding and a new ‘fast track process’ to help speed up new build applications as well as remediation applications rectifying the backlog caused by the current role sitting with the HSE. 

So now, the government is anticipating the creation of a new corporate body to carry out the Building Safety Regulator functions under a bespoke governance structure. Regulations establishing this new body are scheduled to take effect in early 2026, with commencement dates around late January flagged in draft documentation. The intention is to:

• Create a more clearly independent regulator for building safety.
• Clarify accountability lines between the Building Safety Regulator, the sponsoring department and local regulators.
• Enable more tailored recruitment, digital systems, and fee‑setting arrangements.

This shift should hopefully now speed up the Gateway 2 process and applications to enable construction to progress smoothly. 

Now in relation to The Building Safety Levy, a draft of the regulations where published in June 2025 and the government has now confirmed that as of the 1st of October 2026 the Building Safety Levy will start to apply to qualifying residential developments in England.

Key features from government guidance summarises:

• The Levy as a tax on new residential buildings, including conversions, that require building control approval. In its latest form, the levy applies to schemes of more than 10 dwellings, including purpose‑built student housing.
• Local authorities will be the collecting authorities of the levy money and must carry out spot checks. The income made from the levy will be returned to central government to help pay for the remediation of unsafe buildings.
• Developers will need to provide information at two key stages. First at the application for building control approval stage, and again at works commencement. Failure to provide information will be grounds for refusal of building control approval.
• The Levy will be paid as a single payment before applying for a completion certificate. Currently, there is no provision for staged payments, despite industry pleas.

The Draft regulations and guidance also explain that: 

• There will be exemptions, for example certain affordable housing, NHS and supported accommodation, but the detail will need checking scheme by scheme.
• The Levy will sit on top of existing financial obligations like Section 106, local and Mayoral CIL, and the Residential Property Developer Tax.

From an architects and practices perspective, even though they are not paying the Levy, it will shape:

• Site viability, density and unit mix discussions.
• Client decisions about when to submit building control applications relative to the October 2026 start date.
• Pressure on design teams to manage costs elsewhere to offset Levy exposure.

You can refer to back to episodes 177 & 178 if you want to learn more about the Building Safety Regulator Reform and Levy. I will be following up with further episode updates later in the year.

Now let’s move onto the fourth key theme of today’s episode. Embodied and whole‑life carbon: 

Although there is no clear route towards the release of this regulation, there are ambitions in moving and adopting guidances like the not yet formal Approved Document Z to the Building Regulations,   which we previously covered in episode 171. 

Although not a formal document as mentioned, guidance and proposals outlined within the draft Part Z have started to be actively referenced by government and industry bodies as a likely model for future regulation.

Specialist guidance for developers and contractors highlights 2026 as a key target year for introducing mandatory whole‑life carbon assessment and limits into the regulatory framework for new buildings. Typical features of these anticipated rules, drawing on Part Z proposals and current industry consensus, include:

• Mandatory whole‑life carbon assessment for larger developments, reporting upfront, operational, maintenance, and end‑of‑life carbon.
• Embodied carbon intensity caps by building type and size, tightening over time.
• Requirements to submit carbon calculations with planning or building control applications, reviewed by building control as part of compliance.

While formal regulations had not yet been laid, the message for practices in 2026 is straightforward:

• Treat whole‑life carbon assessment as standard good practice on significant schemes.
• Align methods with recognised frameworks such as RICS Whole Life Carbon, LETI, IStructE and UKGBC guidance to be ready for regulatory adoption.
• Expect planning authorities, funders and large clients to start demanding whole‑life carbon metrics ahead of regulation, as part of ESG and net‑zero commitments.

You can refer to back to episode 171 if you want to learn more about Part Z. I will be following up with further episode updates later in the year if it seems likely for it to become one of the official approved documents.

Now let’s move onto the fifth key theme of today’s episode. Environment, Biodiversity Net Gain and sustainability regulation:

The environmental and sustainability field is also tightening around construction in 2026.

As you are already aware, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is already in force for most major developments in England, but recent government commentary on planning reforms emphasises:

• Maintaining BNG for larger schemes while easing burdens on very small developments, with sites under 0.2 hectares flagged as remaining outside mandatory BNG in current policy messaging.
• Using strategic nature recovery and mitigation schemes to support faster housing delivery while still meeting environmental objectives.

For everyday practice, this means:

• BNG stays central to most housing and mixed‑use schemes through 2026.
• There may be some simplification for minor works, but do not assume exemptions. Always check the site area and local plan policies.

In parallel, government has trailed a “common‑sense” approach to environmental regulation intended to:

• Cut delays in environmental permitting and assessments that hold up new homes and infrastructure.
• Maintain core protections while simplifying overlapping requirements and speeding decisions.

This fits with the Planning and Infrastructure Act narrative of “unblocking” the system, but it does not remove the need for robust environmental assessment and mitigation. Beyond planning, 2026 is also a dense year for wider sustainability rules:

• A range of UK and EU‑linked sustainability regulations are tightening around product labelling, green claims, corporate reporting and supply‑chain due diligence.
• These will affect construction by pushing greater transparency on product environmental performance, recyclability, and upstream emissions.

For architects, this can show up as:

• More robust Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and data requirements at specification stage.
• Clients asking how building design supports their corporate reporting obligations and environmental, social and governance narratives.

I will be following up with further episode updates later in the year.

Now let’s move onto the final sixth key theme of today’s episode. Professional competence and standards:

In 2025, the Construction Industry Council announced the approval of a new British Standard on sustainability competence for the built environment. A standard intended to define what “competence in sustainability” looks like across disciplines.

This British Standard:

• Sets out core sustainability knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of built‑environment professionals,
• And is explicitly designed to mesh with existing competence frameworks, including those of professional institutions and dutyholder requirements under building safety legislation.

While take‑up will be gradual, from 2026 onward you can expect:

• More emphasis on sustainability competence in recruitment, appraisals and promotions.
• Professional bodies, including the ARB and RIBA, are expected to reference this standard as part of their expectations on continued competence and CPD.

I will be following up with further episode updates later in the year to cover the requirements of this new standard.

So to conclude, as we look ahead, 2026 is not a single “big bang” change, but a convergence point of a number of changes:

• Firstly expecting planning reform through the Planning and Infrastructure Act, with a focus on speed and certainty.
• Then, housing standards moving decisively towards the Future Homes Standard, with December 2026 and December 2027 as key transition markers.
• Building safety maturing into a new institutional model and a new cost layer via the Building Safety Levy from 1st of October 2026.
• And carbon, biodiversity and sustainability moving from optional leadership topics into core regulatory and competence expectations.

The key takeaways is that legislation is increasingly integrated through:

• Housing delivery targets tie into planning reform.
• Planning reform tied into environmental and nature‑recovery frameworks.
• Building regulations tied into net‑zero and safety.
• And professional competence tied into all of them.

In practice, the architects who will thrive in this landscape are those who can see across the silos. Linking planning strategy to Future Homes Standard design decisions, to Levy exposure, to whole‑life carbon and BNG, and to the competence of their team.