Industry reacts to Future Homes Standard announcement

Voices from across the industry have published their response to last week’s Future Homes Standard announcement, regarding new regulations set to come into effect on March 24th 2027.

Managing director of Vaillant Group UK and Ireland, Henrik Hansen, explains: “The update to the Future Homes and Buildings Standard marks a major step forward in delivering highly efficient, sustainable, and future-ready homes across the UK.

“The Government’s confirmation that, from 2028, the vast majority of new homes and buildings will be constructed with low carbon heating systems, solar panels and high levels of energy efficiency provides the long term clarity that manufacturers, housebuilders and consumers have been waiting for.

“This is a hugely positive step and a clear signal of the Government’s commitment to the transformation towards low carbon heating solutions.”

Managing director of Knauf Insulation, Neil Hargreaves, comments: “Housebuilders will be pleased today. A standard to deliver more efficient and comfortable homes for their customers, but without requiring wholesale reinvention. In most cases, fabric compliance will be readily achievable using non-combustible insulation in 150mm wall cavities and more efficient lofts.

“With fine-tuned heat pumps replacing brute force gas boilers, any fabric performance gap will be much more keenly felt by homeowners (and seen on their electricity bills). Couple that with EPC Reform soon giving them the right to have their new home assessed, and the SMETER programme giving them the means to do so, and ‘as-built’ performance quickly becomes an acute concern.

“For all housebuilders, the right Future Homes adoption strategy will include design and process choices that mitigate this risk to prevent future headaches.”

While industry reactions were optimistic, there was also a sense of caution. As Neil Sawers, commercial technical manager at Grant UK, says: “We must also acknowledge the practical challenges that accompany this rapid transition. The projected scale of expansion (aiming for half of all UK homes to be heated by heat pumps by 2040) will require unprecedented collaboration across the sector. The capital cost uplifts identified in the assessment and ensuring that there is a sufficiently skilled and trained workforce to install and maintain these systems at scale remains a critical hurdle that must be overcome.”

 

Baxi’s director of external affairs and policy, Jeff House, adds: “There is still much to do behind the scenes regarding the Home Energy Model (HEM) which is not yet ready, so Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) V10.3 will be adopted as an interim measure.”

There was also a sense of frustration regarding the timescale, as Martyn Bridges, director of external affairs at Worcester Bosch, explains: “It is disappointing that this was not introduced some years ago in 2016, when it was scrapped by the then Chancellor, George Osborne.

“There has (also) been some criticism that the introduction date of 24 March 2027 is too far away and allows too many more houses to be constructed without low-carbon heating systems. The supply chain, however, needs time to build up to that date. Particularly regarding installer availability, adding a potential 200,000 heat pump installations per annum overnight would not be possible.”