Starship, Octopus debut zero-bills house in Liverpool

It may sound too good to be true, but the developer and energy company guarantee that their two-storey home is so energy efficient it will enable homeowners to live energy bill-free for 10 years.

Starship Group has partnered with Octopus Energy for the three-bed modular house, which is currently situated outside the ACC Liverpool as part of the Housing Community Summit. It will stay there until the end of the Labour Party Conference as a showcase of Liverpool City Region’s drive to be an innovator in the world of low-carbon housing.

The home took a week to build at Starship’s factory in Wirral and was assembled in two days on site. Starship’s focus was on creating an airtight building utilising a light-gauge steel frame, insulation, and brick slips. There are solar panels, air-source heat pumps, and home batteries.

Octopus Energy’s Kraken technology platform works in the house to monitor energy use, allowing excess energy generated by the solar panels to go back into the grid.

Dave Dargan, co-founder and chief executive of Starship Group, said he hoped the home would change people’s perspectives on MMC.

“The sector has moved on substantially, particularly in the last two years. There are a lot of warranties available and our costs have come down. Traditional build costs have risen, so we’re reaching parity of build costs,” he said.

He also pointed to the benefits of the zero-bills house as an example of how MMC can revolutionise housing delivery. The house costs more to build, but he said it was within a reasonable margin. And while it may require a slightly higher rent, it would save tenants around £3,000 a year due to the lack of bills, he said.

“We’re at about £5,000 to £7,000 more for the build in total to save around £3,000 per annum,” Dargan said. “They’re almost no-brainer numbers… If we can provide somebody a house that doesn’t give them a significant energy cost burden, why are we not doing it?

“If we were to deliver half the houses in just the LCR, we would save £250m in energy costs per annum. All that money would be back in the local economy.”

He also said that the industry has a responsibility to keep pushing for energy efficiency.

“The more we do, the more the battery and technology costs come down,” he said. “We have a social responsibility to try and work hard to adopt and make homes work to a new standard.”

Dargan hopes that during the Labour Party Conference government officials will be inspired by the house.

“We want to really push this in the face of ministers and MPs to show them what is achievable and what is possible,” he said. The goal is that they will, in turn, push for policy changes to streamline the delivery process and remove some of the barriers for the delivery of these types of homes.

Starship and Octopus’s zero-bills house fits in with the city region’s recently launched Future Homes LCR plan. This plan seeks to put the city region at the forefront of low-carbon housing delivery while also enabling the building of 83,000 homes in the region by 2040. The Future Homes LCR plan is the result of work between the Liverpool City Region Business and Enterprise Board, JJ Smith, Starship, and the combined authority.

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “Keir Starmer’s pledge to build 1.5m homes is exactly the bold action we need, and I want as many of them to be built here in the Liverpool City Region as possible. With innovative solutions like modular construction, we can make a massive dent in that target and deliver homes faster, more affordably, and sustainably.

“As Mayor, I’m committed to overseeing an affordable housing revolution in our region – including the return of large-scale council house building. We’ve got the skills, the expertise, and the determination to make this a success, and we stand ready to work with the government and legislated providers to make it happen.”