News

Industry needs to ramp up low carbon heating and on-site renewables to meet stronger regulations for new homes

A shift to low carbon services will be the biggest change that will affect house design in 2027. From our analysis of the new Future Homes Standard, coming into force next year, we found that the key changes that will affect the sector are:

1. the shift from gas boilers to heat pump-led designs for individual and communal heating systems
2. renewable electricity generation now required for most dwellings
3. only sleeved district heat networks will comply with regulations

Most homes will need to meet these standards from 24 March 2027, except for High-Risk Buildings that must meet the requirements by 24 September 2027.

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Read our full analysis of the Future Homes Standard

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These ambitious targets set a strong baseline which is likely to become harder to achieve, especially with the National Planning Policy Framework retaining a route for local planning authorities to set energy efficiency standards that go beyond current or proposed building regulations.

 

We recommend housing developers prepare for these changes by:

1. accelerating the move toward heat pumps, with a focus on their efficiency
2. designing in more on-site renewable electricity generation
3. considering fabric performance, services and utility as part of an overarching strategy

In the future, we expect regulation to set more challenging targets for existing buildings, in-use performance, resilience and embodied carbon.

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For further information, please contact:

Greg Jones
Director & Residential Sector Lead
gregjones@hoarelea.com

Tom Smith
Associate Director
thomassmith@hoarelea.com

Vanessa Wall
Senior Associate
vanessawall@hoarelea.com