September 2022
Featured in this insight: Construction, Manufacturing, engineering & industrial
Fewer than half the senior employees working for new build home developers say their organisation is at an advanced stage of planning for the 2025 Future Homes Standard: A survey by Inside Housing in association with aircrete product manufacturer, H+H, has found that as the implementation of the full Future Homes Standard gets closer (just three years away), housing associations and councils as well as a number of developers are at varying stages of planning for it.
The Future Homes Standard is a requirement laid out by the government stipulating that all new homes in England should produce 75% to 80% less carbon emissions than previous standards, by 2025.
The survey revealed that fewer than half are at an 'advanced' or 'very advanced' stage of planning for the new 2025 Standard, with 13% admitting they are only in the very early stages of preparing for the changes.
The survey polled 71 respondents who work for new build home developers, and found that 58% of these believe it will be 'somewhat challenging' to meet the 2025 standard, with 15% saying they believe it will be 'very challenging' for their organisation.
Of the employees surveyed, the majority worked in senior roles, while almost a quarter said they were at director level (23%), with 13% saying they were on the organisation’s board. Four of the 71 people surveyed were a chief executive or managing director, found the survey.
Concern was also voiced about the wider social housing sector and how it as a whole will meet the Future Home Standard.
More than half said that it would be 'somewhat challenging' while just over a third (35%) said they anticipate it being 'very challenging' to meet the standard.
Respondents were also asked about the extent to which they agree with the statement "the Future Homes Standard does not go far enough in moving social housing towards net zero", with more than two fifths (42%) saying that they agree, and 13% saying they 'strongly agree'. Just over a third said they 'somewhat disagree' (35%), with 7% saying they 'strongly disagree'.
When asked about elements of the Standard (and preparation for it) that are causing the most concern, more than half the respondents polled said 'cost' was the greatest challenge to meeting the standard, followed by a fear that the technical understanding around building such homes, is not where it should be (15%). Twelve percent of residents said 'expertise' was the greatest challenge, while 8% said 'timing' with the date of 2025 being 'too soon'.
The survey also revealed that 65% of respondents believed that using low carbon heating is more of a challenge than meeting new construction standards.
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