Chris Beedel, head of advocacy & stakeholder relations at the GGF, offers a comprehensive overview of the Future Homes Standard, and explains what installers should be doing now to make the most of the opportunities and prepare for what’s ahead.
Heating and powering buildings accounts for 40% of the UK’s total energy usage. So, to meet the UK’s net zero target by 2050, homes must become more efficient.
The Future Homes Standard has been established to make sure new homes produce 75-80% less carbon emissions than those built to current standards, with no retrofit work necessary. But it’s not just new homes that need to comply. Existing buildings will also need to be brought up to standard. All homes are expected to be highly energy efficient with low carbon heating and be carbon zero ready by 2025.
With an aim to increase the efficiency of buildings, the Future Homes Standard is looking to improve heating and hot water systems, but crucially for our industry, also reduce heat waste. To prepare for this standard, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) introduced changes to the Building Regulations in June 2022, ahead of the full implementation in 2025.
Document L was one of the Parts of the Building Regulations to be amended and has changed the required U-value of windows from 1.4 to 1.2. While this first adjustment hasn’t caused the industry too much of a problem, the next amendment could see the required U-value jumping from 1.2 to closer to 0.8.
The government is supporting these requirements with a package of performance metrics that ensure a ‘fabric first’ approach. The energy performance of buildings will be assessed according to primary energy target, CO2 emissions target, and fabric energy efficiency target. The aim is to have buildings that reduce carbon through the fabric and building services, so homes have a smaller carbon footprint that continues to reduce over time as the electricity grid decarbonises. This isn’t the end of the story to achieve a net zero future, but it is an extremely important part of the jigsaw.
Window of opportunity
As we discovered in recent research we had commissioned and the resulting Window of Opportunity report, looking at homes that had loft, floor and wall insulation, draught proofing, low energy lighting and solar water heating, while the heat load had reduced, 44.3% of heat loss was then through the windows as the point of least resistance.
If the same house then had windows installed to the latest standards, the heat loss reduced to 22%. This clearly demonstrates the importance of glazing.
The GGF continues to lobby on behalf of the industry to ensure windows and doors are given the energy saving credence they deserve, but in the meantime, we should be working hard to upgrade existing housing stock to meet today’s Building Regulations.
There is an incredible amount of potential already, with our Window of Opportunity report also finding that less than 1% of windows installed after June last year were A rated, while 70% installed since 2002 were C rated. So, although lots of homes do already have relatively new windows, not many meet the building standards relevant today. In fact, we calculate that 80 million windows would benefit from immediate replacement.
The next step for Future Homes is for the DLUHC to hold a technical consultation this year with a view of introducing the new legislation in 2024 and implementing it in 2025, but it is useful to understand what is to come and begin the process of educating homeowners.
The GGF works hard to stay informed and be part of the discussions with government on behalf of the industry, so if installers have any questions, they can talk to a member of our team or visit our website for the very latest updates. We are arming our members with all the information they need to secure new sales and prepare for the changes ahead.
