Persuading future MPs to develop a national strategy to improve the energy and water efficiency of the UK’s 25m existing homes will be crucial for consumer protection, the building industry has said. The watchdog body Ofgem estimates hundreds of thousands of homes that have had cavity wall insulation fitted under government backed green energy schemes have failed. The Chartered Institute of Building, CIOB, has launched a pre-election manifesto to educate prospective MPs in the run-up to the general election on [...]

More than 250,000 new entrants across multiple disciplines are needed to make the UK’s existing 27m homes reach net zero by 2050, according to a new report.  Roadmap of Skills for Net-Zero: Competencies for Domestic Retrofit is calling for a consistent definition of competencies among manufacturers, installers, and professional assessors. Emissions from homes account for nearly half of the UK’s built environment carbon footprint.  Construction Leadership Council’s people and skills industry sponsor and Travis Perkins chief executive Nick Roberts said: [...]

SME developers and housebuilders should get a greater slice of the action under local authorities’ new powers to buy land for affordable or social housing.  Councils and Homes England can now acquire land through compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, providing it’s in the public interest to enable affordable or social housing or for health or education.   Levelling up minister Jacob Young said: “Our changes will act as a catalyst for investment in our towns and cities and drive much-needed regeneration across [...]

SME housebuilders developing sites of less than ten homes are finding biodiversity net gain rules so complicated and costly they are leaving the industry. The rubric for improving or creating new habitats went live on the 2nd of April for small sites under the Environment Act, 2021. National Federation of Builders, NFB, policy and market insight head Rico Wojtulewicz said: “It’s just not delivering. There’s not enough off-site credits available and price gouging is going on.” For example, if a [...]

A cross-industry working group is calling for mandatory targets to cut individual water consumption at home from 110 litres a day to 105 by 2025 – a 16 per cent drop. The Future Homes Hub’s Water Ready report wants the government to draft a ten-year water efficiency roadmap with targets enshrined in building regulations for 2025, 2030 and 2035. Hub chair and Barratt Developments chief executive David Thomas said: “We are already seeing the pressures on water supply affect the [...]