How can the government achieve economic growth and GHG reduction in the built environment

• TDC's local plan has been inspected, but the outcome isn't known - we are hopeful.
• The following have been published by government.
  • Housing and net zero research briefing 8/7/2024
  • MHCLG blog on future homes standard and solar panels
  • Government to introduce FHS in due course 16/12/2024 written question and answer
• The sunshine bill was debated on 17/1/2025 and FHS was cited in the related research briefing. The debate on 17/1/2025 concludes with a statement from Matthew Pennycook (11:43 to 11.58) about the programme for the FHS, which is unspecific.

• Reduction in red tape at the expense of carbon reduction
• Pressure from building industry to water down FHS
• Chancellor putting growth ahead of everything else
• No announcement yet (apart from the 17th) of an implementation plan

Local plan progress

The original purpose for my contact was to attempt to remove a obstacle to Teignbridge DC policy for Net-Zero building in the local plan coming before the inspector in Autumn 2024.

The inspector has now held a number of sessions, including one on climate policies, where ACT appeared and was ably represented by Fuad. Our feeling after the meeting was that the inspector was receptive to our arguments.

We do not yet know the outcome of the inspection, but the inspectors wrote on 18th December . This letter makes no reference to climate policies, therefore we think it is relatively likely that the net zero policy will come into effect.

This of course assumes that no new government policy overrides.

Government action

My original email suggested a number of possible government actions:

• Making a statement revoking the previous government's Written Ministerial Statement (WMS), noting that the government has already revoked the effective ban on onshore wind
• Publishing the conclusions of the FHS consultation, and then implementing the FHS
• As soon as possible introduce a further set of building regulations which:
  • Introduce energy and emissions standards for the whole building life cycle including construction and demolition.
  • Ensure that operational emissions are at least net-zero.

There has not been any movement towards implementing any of the above.

There have been rumours that the FHS will be further postponed or watered down to avoid putting off developers.

On 24th October MHCLG posted Reporting on the Future Homes Standard and solar panels

This was debated on 17th January (after this appointment was in the process of being arranged). Matthew Pennycock's response for the government (at the end of the hansard report) makes some promises on the FHS.

• Sunshine bill (commons library)
• Hansard Sunshine Bill

On December 13th 2023 a written ministerial statement (WMS) was issued by the conservative government, which restricted the ability of local authorities to impose higher Technical standards by policies in their local plans.

Option 2 is the less demanding option which includes a notional building with:

• High efficiency electric heat pump (COP ≥ 3.0)
• Fabric standard as 2021 part L
• Increase in performance standards for hot water storage
• Separate notional building for heat networks

Option 1 extends this by including:

• PV over at least 40% of roof area.
• WasteWater heat recovery
• Distributed mechanical extract ventilation
• Increased air tightness

Notes on FHS consultation

• Space heating demand not more than 15 kWh/m²/yr or heating load < 10W/m²
• Envelope airtightness ≤ 0.6Air Changes per Hour (ACH).
• Primary Energy Renewable Demand ≤ 60 kWh/m²/yr including appliances.
• Indoor temperatures ≤ 25 C for ≤ 10% of the year.
• Humidity below a limit ≤ 20% of the year.
• Ventilation at least 20 m³/h/person > 0.3ACH.
• Minimum system heat recovery > 75%

What is PassivHaus?

RICS has established a Whole Life Cycle Assessment (WLCA) standard for the measurement of emissions from buildings. Here are some relevant links:

• 2^nd edition of WLCA effective from July 2024
• The RICS Whole life carbon assessment for the built environment: how, why and what next? Construction Journal 9th June 2020
• Carbon assessments of buildings and targets to boost low carbon construction could come within years Environmental Audit Committee 2022
• Carbon Emissions (Buildings) BillSecond Reading Debate 25 November 2022
• Building to net zero: costing carbon in construction25 May 2025 Environmental Audit Committee Report
• BS_EN_15978-1 - Designing Buildings Wiki

The embodied carbon emissions from new build alone will account for a 3% increase in UK territorial emissions over 5 years. (based on 40t per dwelling, UK annual territorial emissions of 400Mt/year)

Provisional UK territorial emissions for 2023 were 384MtCO₂e, going forward Projected lower from 2023 to 2050

As only a small proportion of new build embodied emissions are measured, reliable estimates are difficult to come by and range between 15tCO₂e and 100tCO₂e we have taken 40tCO₂e as an informed guess. Here are some references:

• Operational and Embedded carbon in new build housing NHBC 2011
• Carbon footprint benchmarking data for buildings Inst. of Structural Engineers 2020
• The whole life Carbon Cost of Dwellings York & North Yorkshire LEP
• UK Green Building Council Carbon Roadmap Technical Report
• Calculating the embedded carbon emissions of construction materials SHIFT technology 2021