The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has published a scorecard assessing progress since the Government's Heat and Buildings Strategy launched in October 2021, and states that the Government only has until April 2023 to renew and reissue its policies to meet the UK's net zero targets, after they were found by the courts to be "unlawful"1. The analysis, published by the independent industry body, compares announced or in-delivery policies against the recommendations in UKGBC's Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the Built Environment, a pathway launched at COP26 in Glasgow1.
UKGBC reports that most of the Government's proposals or plans fail to deliver progress towards, or even actively hinder, a net zero carbon built environment1. It states that current policies put the UK on track for only around half of the emissions cuts needed, that there is no national strategy to decarbonise all 29m homes, that policy to decarbonise non-domestic buildings has frozen, and that draft policy for new homes and buildings standards from 2025 falls far short1. It adds that England's planning system currently frustrates rather than supports net zero and nature restoration goals, and that embodied carbon is a huge gap in government policy1. The built environment is described as the UK's second largest source of climate emissions after surface transport1.
On homes specifically, UKGBC says there are almost no policies to encourage and support owner occupiers to decarbonise their homes, the vast majority of the UK's domestic properties, and that existing funds and initiatives for those in fuel poverty only reach a small fraction of the homes that need attention1. It sets out three opportunities for government in the year ahead: fast-tracking retrofit of the UK's homes, overhauling the planning system to support net zero, and stopping the building of homes and buildings not fit for net zero1. It names the Future Homes and Buildings Standard to be introduced in 2025 as the big opportunity to put that right1.
UKGBC puts figures on the cost of inaction, saying every year of delay means missing out on an annual household saving of over £700 on energy bills, an additional 500,000 skilled local jobs over 10 years, and NHS savings of £1.4bn in annual treatment bills for conditions related to cold homes, potentially saving 10,000 lives a year1. It notes the UK's interim net zero target of a 78% reduction in carbon by 2035 is just 12 years away1.
"Most areas of policy we have scrutinised have come back red rated, meaning detailed policy frameworks are largely missing, flawed, or do not put the UK on the path to meeting our climate commitments."
Why it matters for households
The scorecard's central claim is that national policy to cut energy waste in homes is thin, and that owner occupiers, who make up the bulk of UK domestic properties, are largely unaddressed by existing schemes1. For a household, that shapes the practical route to energy independence: fewer mandated standards and fewer national programmes mean the pace of improvement in the housing stock depends less on regulation and more on what individual owners choose to do. UKGBC's estimate of over £700 a year in household energy bill savings is presented as a prize foregone each year that policy is delayed, not as a saving already available1. The same analysis links home energy performance to energy security and to NHS costs for cold-related conditions1.
What happens next
The Government has until April 2023 to renew and reissue the policies found unlawful, according to UKGBC, and is preparing a response to that legal challenge1. UKGBC says incorporating its three opportunities into the Net Zero Strategy will be essential to putting the UK on a credible path to net zero by 20501. A consultation on the Future Homes and Buildings Standard, due for introduction in 2025, is described as forthcoming1. The Energy Efficiency Taskforce is named as a route to bringing in industry experience on retrofit1. No further dates for these steps are given in the source.