It is difficult to draw comparisons between Code for sustainable homes (CfSH) and Home Quality Mark (HQM) schemes as it is not a like for like comparison. Although in principle CfSH and HQM seem similar in terms of some of the technical areas they consider, fundamentally their approaches and structures are very different. For example, specific technical content is very different and HQM is much more flexible as a scheme with only one mandatory requirement, which is important as a voluntary scheme. The outputs are also very different with any star rating considered as ‘better’ than minimum standards. The indicator scores within HQM also allow value to be drawn out from dwellings to a deeper level, while using a language that is consumer friendly.
We will be looking at doing a more thorough comparison to help with the transition between CfSH and HQM. This is expected to include case studies on projects that are using both schemes, to see how they compare; we will look to publish a few potential case studies in the near future.
