The Government opened consultation on the Future Homes and Buildings Standard at the end of 2023, according to the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). The standard will set the regulations for homes constructed beyond 20251. UKGBC, an independent industry body, dated its response to the consultation 13 December 20231.
The consultation set out options for the energy and carbon performance of new homes. UKGBC said it was disappointed with what was offered. The body stated that neither option could be considered genuinely "future" because many buildings in the UK are already built to a higher standard1. It said individual developers, many of them UKGBC members, had invested years and millions of pounds in skills, technologies and supply chains to deliver more, and described the consultation as a huge missed opportunity1.
"UKGBC was disappointed at the weak options set out by the consultation."
The body said the outcome brings continued uncertainty for its members and the sector, making investment planning impossible and creating bottlenecks of skills and supplies, which it said make the next phase of development more expensive than it needed to be1. UKGBC has sent a joint letter to Government setting out an industry-backed proposal for what it calls a better Future Homes Standard, and has developed five tests for government policy on future homes and buildings1. It has also published a proposed pathway for a higher standard, which it says would provide new homes that are comfortable to live in, affordable to run, and at the cutting edge of low and zero carbon1.
The consultation document itself, the specific options it set out, and the Government's own stated position are not reproduced in the material available here. The rates, thresholds and eligible measures under each option have not been reported in this source.
Why it matters for households
The standard will determine the running costs, comfort and resilience of homes built from 2025 onwards. UKGBC states that homes are still too often built connected to gas, with insufficient insulation to stop heat loss and lower energy costs, without solar panels, and not resilient to floods, drought and overheating1. For a household, those are the features that decide how much of its energy it can generate itself, how much it must buy, and how well the home copes with extreme weather. A standard set at a lower level locks those characteristics into the housing stock for decades, because building fabric and heating systems are difficult and expensive to change later. A higher standard shifts new homes towards producing their own electricity and needing less delivered energy, which is the practical meaning of energy independence at the level of an individual property. UKGBC says some developers already routinely build homes with solar electricity, better insulation and smart controls that reduce pressure on the grid at peak times1.
What happens next
UKGBC says it is continuing to engage with policymakers to develop the standard1. No date for the Government's response to the consultation, or for publication of the final standard, is given in the source.
Sources1 cited
- Future Homes Standard | UKGBC, ukgbc.org