A report on the likely mainstream technologies in the mid 2020’s that SAP 11 will need to consider.
BEIS, who have primary responsibility for the development of SAP for all its uses, asked the SAP Industry Forum in October 2018 to produce a report to help inform the development of the next major iteration of SAP. That version, SAP11, would be expected to come into use in the mid 2020s subject to the usual consultation and development processes. The report is primarily designed to be a briefing document for BEIS and any potential developer of SAP11, although it is hoped that it will be of use to other interested parties.
The SAP Industry Forum was established in Q1-2 2018 to assist with BEIS’ policy of engagement with industry. SAP contract discussions (BEIS, BRE and Robust Details) resulted in the first SAP Industry Forum meeting June 2018, during which industry identified a number of topics that concerned them.
The BEIS policy team asked the SAP Industry Forum in (October 2018) to work on establishing the likely technologies that would be mainstream for housing in the mid 2020s. As previously mentioned, there is a view from industry that SAP is slow to incorporate new technologies either via Appendix Q or in the main specification. Asking industry to set out likely technologies was seen as a way to increase the chances of SAP11 covering all the likely technologies including innovative solutions that might not otherwise be known to the future SAP11 contractor. Another reason was to improve the quality of communication between government, SAP contractor and industry, not just for this project but also for any other issues that could arise.
The initial SAP Industry Forum meeting (held June 2018) was widely attended by industry. This was followed by a focussed second meeting in October 2018 during which the leaders of the five Working Groups were identified. Subsequently, a further five meetings were held, either as Working Group leaders only or full membership; to maintain momentum and ensure inter-working group activity. BEIS, MHCLG and Devolved Administrations were engaged in all of these meetings. Minutes and presentations are available via the BRE hosted SAP website.
The full report can be read here SAP 11 Technologies Report.