VIDEO | How is the Future Homes Standard affecting the industry?

The Future Homes Standard is designed to improve the energy efficiency of houses and apartments, reducing residents’ bills and catapulting the housing industry towards net zero. 

Under the forthcoming regime homes should end up with 75-80% less carbon emitted than by homes built under the current building regulations. 

In principle, it is a step in the right direction. But progress never comes easy. 

At this special roundtable organised in association with timber windows manufacturer NorDan UK, Place North West gathered a cross-section of industry leaders to discuss how the looming introduction of the Future Homes Standard is affecting the industry and ask what is being done to rise to the challenges it presents. 

Participants

Heather Mason, senior architect, Buttress

Simon Hourihan, project director, Muse

Daniel Roberts, development director, Glenbrook

Nigel Sedman, executive director of homes, ForHousing

Sam Godfrey, senior design manager, Eric Wright Construction

Ben McCartney, partner, Gardiner & Theobald

Craig Greenwood, managing director, NorDan UK

Sonia Travis, commercial sales manager, NorDan UK

Chaired by Dan Whelan, deputy editor of Place North West

Key points

Developers fear a 20% rise in build costs, further adding to material cost inflation and increasing the challenge of getting to viability and reaching site.

Skills are a big issue facing the industry. When the new standards come into force will there be enough qualified people, was the question debated at length. Do registered providers and others have the resources to cope and will they be able to afford the time and money to retrain and upskill their teams?

Property companies and the supply chain all welcome the arrival of energy-efficient buildings, which in turn should reduce bills for tenants. Some want more stringent rules such as full Passivhaus building fabric to be adopted. However, the impact on affordability and viability cannot be ignored.

Any delays to training and sourcing additional finance to meet Future Homes Standard could mean that delivery of much-needed housing supply stagnates and we see a drop-off in the number of new homes being delivered.

You can hear more highlights from the roundtable in the video at the top of this article, as well as on the Place North YouTube channel.