Background
Surrey County Council supports the aim of improving the energy efficiency of properties, enabling residents to enjoy warmer, healthier homers with lower heating costs. Action Surrey is able to advise on improving the energy efficiency of your home, what grants are available and finding local contractors.
In Surrey, some homes have solid walls which cannot be insulated with cavity wall insulation. A small number of these households have walls which adjoin the public highway. In the first instance, if your home adjoins the footpath or carriageway, you should consider internal wall insulation.
What do I need to do?
If you are considering wall insulation, you will need to:
- Contact Action Surrey to find out more information about insulation types, grants and local contractors.
- Contact your local district or borough to see if planning permission is required.
- Inform the Highways team at Surrey County Council via the Contact us page.
Why we need to visit the site
Surrey County Council have an obligation under the Highways Act (1980) to make sure footpaths and carriageways are unobstructed for other users as much as possible. If external wall insulation is preferred, the householder will be required to contact the Local Highways Service to arrange an assessment by one of our engineers. There is currently no charge for this service.
The engineer will be assessing local site factors, ensuring that any proposed work leaves the highway safe and unobstructed for other users. The engineer will be able to suggest if scaffolding would be safe to erect or not.
Conditions for external wall insulation
- The installation is performed to the technical specification of PAS (Publicly Available Specification) 2030 and undertaken in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.
- A Scaffolding licence. if required, must be obtained. There is a fee for this licence and it is usually applied for by the contractor doing the work.
- If there is any utility company equipment near your property, you will need to speak to them to agree any alterations that are needed. The householder will have to pay the cost if there is any.
- If the installation on an external wall that joins a live carriageway (there is no footpath), then the installation must be performed by a competent person/NRSWA (New Roads & Street Works Act) qualified person along with £10 million public liability insurance.
