Part R aims to meet increased broadband demand

With online learning, shopping and entertainment now increasingly common, having a domestic internet connection is crucial.

To meet demand for broadband, the UK government has published Approved Document R volumes 1 and 2 to set out the requirements for electronic communications networks infrastructure in buildings.

Both documents came into force on 26 December, and any building for which an initial notice, full plans or building notice was submitted after this date will need to comply with the regulations. However, if a notice was submitted before 26 December and work begins on site within 12 months of this date it will be exempt from the new requirements. When multiple buildings are being constructed, starting work on one will serve to exempt the rest of those on site.

Requirement RA1 and RA2 in volume 1 applies to the erection of a dwelling or of a building that contains one or more dwellings. Volume 2 only applies where RA1 does not apply. There is also a distinction in that volume 1 requires a network capable of providing broadband access at download speeds of at least 1,000Mbps – that is, one gigabit – whereas volume 2 only sets a minimum of 30Mbps, though this is still classified as high-speed.

Requirement RA1 in volume 1 states that building work must ensure that each dwelling is first of all equipped with gigabit-ready physical infrastructure. This should extend from a termination point for gigabit-capable public electronic communications networks to a distribution point in the dwelling, or as close as is reasonably practicable.

The infrastructure would, for example, include the appropriate ductwork, chambers, cabling and network termination point for each dwelling, allowing for the connection to be installed.

RA1(2) then states that, for 'a building containing more than one dwelling, the work must be carried out so as to ensure that the building is equipped in addition with a common access point for gigabit-capable public electronic communications networks'. This means that each dwelling will be provided with an access point to receive the connection.

However, some work is exempt from requirement RA1, as per paragraph 1.6 of volume 1:

• wholly non-residential buildings and existing buildings undergoing major renovation
• new dwellings created through a material change of use
• rooms for residential purposes in hostels, hotels, boarding houses, schools and other educational institutions, and hospitals and similar establishments used for patient accommodation
• buildings to be occupied by the Ministry of Defence or the armed forces, or used for other national security purposes
• buildings described in Schedule 2 to the Building Regulations on exempt buildings and work
• buildings in areas isolated from a relevant network, where the cost of providing a Universal Service Obligation (USO)-standard connection would exceed the cost cap, and the prospect of a connection to such a gigabit-capable, high-speed or USO-standard public electronic communications network is too remote to justify equipping the building with suitable physical infrastructure or an access point. 

There are similar exemptions to RA2, detailed in paragraph 2.12 of volume 1. Buildings that are not listed among these exemptions may be covered in volume 2, though, which lists all exemptions.

This applies to the construction of a new building or major renovation works, and states that, similarly to RA1, work must ensure the building is equipped with a high-speed-ready internal physical infrastructure, up to a network termination point for high-speed electronic communications networks.

Likewise where a building containing more than one dwelling, the works must ensure that it is equipped with a common access point for high-speed electronic communications networks.

These two requirements are the same as R1 in the 2016 edition of Approved Document R.

These objectives form part of the government's £5bn Project Gigabit, which will begin by providing funding for faster broadband in hard-to-reach areas. A total of more than 500,000 homes and businesses in Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Dorset, County Durham, Essex, Northumberland, South Tyneside and the Tees Valley will be the first to benefit.

Information required in this connectivity plan includes demonstrating the location of the gigabit-ready physical infrastructure, including evidence of why it is being installed; or, if an exemption is to apply, evidence of measures such as the next fastest broadband being used. Assessment of this plan will be carried out when the plans are assessed by the building control body.

Failure to provide this connectivity plan could result in refusal of the application and initial notice, as per the following recent statement that Local Authority Building Control (LABC) included in an email to its members: 'LABC has approached the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities about this matter, and we have been advised that [it is] also of the opinion that a failure to provide, at the time of the giving of the notice, a connectivity plan (or evidence of exemption) is a ground for refusal of the initial notice.'