RIBA attacks proposed homes’ efficiency standards

Plans to increase the energy efficiency of newly-built homes lack ambition, say critics, who have urged ministers to make them more demanding.

Responses to the government’s consultation on its Future Homes Standard have criticised reform Part L of the building regulations, which covers energy efficiency standards.

RIBA said proposed changes were not ambitious enough to meet the challenges facing the environment, while Sadiq Khan went further. The mayor of London accused the government of delaying urgent action to tackle the climate emergency.

The proposed removal of the fabric energy efficiency standard under the government’s plans would hide the use of poor building materials, RIBA said.  It risked homes being built with less insulation now and in the future than was currently required under Part L 2013.

RIBA warned ministers that it was more expensive to retrofit efficiency measures than to do it during construction. “Keeping the fabric energy efficiency target is a positive measure to ensure that energy efficient fabrics are chosen for new homes,” it added.

The government should also press ahead with implementing the Future Homes Standard by 1 January 2025, RIBA said. It added that, given what was needed to prepare for that to happen, the timetable was not ambitious enough.

Alan Jones, RIBA’s president, said any chance of meeting the planned net zero target by 2050 relied on the government urgently embedding much clearer and more demanding targets on operational energy and embodied carbon into building regulations.

“They must also crack down on loopholes which are exploited by developers to build new homes according to regulations from the time they first broke ground, often years out of date,” he added.

Khan said the government’s proposals were short-sighted and set carbon reduction targets for new homes that were 25% lower than London’s Zero-Carbon Home standard introduced in the mayor’s 2016 London Plan.

Writing to housing secretary Robert Jenrick, the mayor said the proposed re-jig of Part L “would create uncertainty and confusion among housebuilders in London”.