Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
The government has proposed the introduction of “a meaningful but achievable uplift” in energy efficiency standards in 2020 as a “stepping stone” to the Future Homes Standard promised by 2025 in the spring budget statement.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it expects new properties built to the Future Homes Standard to produce 75-80 per cent less carbon emissions than one built to the current requirements.
In the meantime, the department is considering strengthening energy efficiency standards in 2020 to reduce the allowed carbon emissions from new homes by either 20 per cent or 31 per cent.
“The new homes that we are constructing now and in the next five to ten years are homes that will exist in 2050,” the ministry said in a consultation document.
“We must therefore make sure that the standards we set for these homes put us on the right path.”
Its preferred option is the second more stringent standard, which would “deliver more carbon savings and result in lower bills for the householder but has higher build costs”.
“We also expect that it would help to prepare supply chains for heat pumps and increase the number of trained installers,” it added.
The department said the requirements would apply to new homes being started within an existing development to prevent smaller companies, which would otherwise be affected sooner, being left at a disadvantage.
It has additionally proposed to “remove the ability of local planning authorities to set higher energy efficiency standards than those in the building regulations”, which it said can create “inefficiencies in supply chains, labour and potentially quality of outcomes.”
The ministry plans to introduce the new regulations in mid-to-late 2020. It also intends to hold a series of consultations on energy efficiency standards for existing homes as well as new and existing non-domestic properties in late 2019 and early 2020.
Chris Hewitt, chief executive of the Solar Trade Association, said: “It is encouraging to see that solar, an affordable and popular technology, is highlighted in this consultation as a way to really cut down carbon emissions in new dwellings and reduce energy bills for residents.
“We welcome both the consultation and the government’s preference for option 2, which in the context of net zero should be the obvious choice. It is high time England caught up with Scotland, and some leading local authorities, on housebuilding standards, which have been leading the way since 2015.”
In the 2019 spring budget statement, the chancellor at the time, Philip Hammond, pledged to ban fossil fuel heating in new homes from 2025 as part of the Future Homes Standard.
Please login or Register to leave a comment.