Building for Life assessments

We recommend that all new housing schemes do a Building for Life assessment before planning. An assessment is an explanation of how your scheme addresses all 20 of the criteria.

You can do an informal assessment yourself, although in some areas of the country you may be able to arrange an accredited assessment. Accredited assessors are usually planning officers, development control officers, architects, urban or landscape designers.

Who needs a Building for Life assessment?

Several agencies now require a Building for Life assessment as part of their regulations:

• Communities and Local Government (CLG)
  Local authorities must include Building for Life assessments as part of the annual monitoring report.
• Housing Corporation
  Applicants to the National Affordable Housing Programme must be able to demonstrate how they meet the required Building for Life standard.
• English Partnerships
  Developers seeking to build on English Partnerships land must be able to demonstrate how they meet the required Building for Life standard.
• Local planning authorities
  Many local planning authorities require applicants to demonstrate how they meet a specific Building for Life standard, such as “good” or “very good”.