Passivhaus Trust co-director Sarah Lewis explores how Passivhaus standards are taking off in the UK in its quest for net zero and sustainability
In May 2025, Barratt London made the game-changing announcement that its residential schemes will be built to meet or exceed the Passivhaus standard. Pending planning approvals, the developer aims to roll out its new model across all its future developments in the capital.
Projects being built to the Passivhaus standard now account for at least 1% of all new UK homes under construction, according to data we released earlier this year. Is the Passivhaus standard taking off in the mainstream UK construction industry?
What is Passivhaus?
Passivhaus is an international quality-assurance building standard that delivers high levels of air quality and comfort while radically reducing energy use in buildings. Passivhaus homes and buildings are healthy, comfortable, warm, peaceful, and bring ultra-low energy bills. Post-monitoring data demonstrates that Passivhaus buildings perform as designed, effectively eliminating the ‘performance gap’.
There are eight key Passivhaus principles, which together form an integrated whole that reliably delivers performance, comfort and durability.
Core principles of approach
- Detailed performance and comfort criteria
- Accurate modelling in PHPP (Passivhaus Planning Package software)
- Rigorous quality assurance
Building principles
- Optimised insulation
- Airtightness
- Ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR)
- Minimised thermal bridging
- High-performance triple-glazed windows
Upsurge
The UK is seeing a large uptick in Passivhaus project. There are currently more than 3000 Passivhaus social housing homes in the pipeline in London, with local authorities spearheading London’s emergence as a global Passivhaus hotspot. At the same time, 60% of all new Scottish schools are being designed using the Passivhaus methodology.
The Passivhaus Trust also now has a number of Tier One contractor members, with a strong track record of delivering Passivhaus projects, and Passivhaus is now being adopted for a range of building typologies, from developments with more than 100 homes, to non-domestic schemes including swimming pools, museums and even police stations!
So, what is driving this upsurge in Passivhaus? There seems to be a range of factors.
Policy drivers
Policy levers and funding incentives have been influential in this uptake of Passivhaus, acting as useful ‘carrots and sticks’:
- Scottish schools: An innovative funding mechanism developed by the Scottish Futures Trust, which encourages local authorities to adopt building standards that guarantee good building performance. Projects receiving funding must meet a clear energy target, and funding may be reduced based on any performance gap after completion. Local authorities have been opting for the Passivhaus route to guarantee good building performance and therefore de-risk funding.
- Welsh social housing: In Wales, funding conditions for social housing schemes permit the adoption of a ‘fabric first’ alternative to EPC A, which draws on the Passivhaus methodology. The recently launched ‘Tai ar y Cyd’ Pattern Book, backed by 25 Welsh social housing providers, with support from the Welsh Government, includes Passivhaus as its suggested ‘enhanced’ standard.
- The London Plan: The GLA’s London Plan sets specifications far higher than current building regulations, with a minimum on-site reduction of at least 35% beyond Building Regulations required for major developments.
- Local Plans: Local authorities, including Cornwall, Bath & NE Somerset, and Central Lincolnshire, have developed local plans that call on developers to go beyond building regulations, often drawing on the Passivhaus methodology.
- Healthy Homes: The health benefits of Passivhaus have just been publicly acknowledged in the Introduction to Homes England’s new Healthy Homes guidance: “Passivhaus is a well-established design and quality assurance system aimed at reducing energy demand, addressing the ‘performance gap’ of new buildings, and improving comfort levels for residents. ….There is significant overlap between a Passivhaus approach and the aims of Healthy Homes”. Passivhaus certified dwellings will automatically achieve ‘Healthy Homes: Good practice enhancements’ status on three specific healthy homes measures.
- Scottish Passivhaus Equivalent: Most significantly, the Scottish Government is currently developing a Scottish Passivhaus equivalent policy for new build housing. The second policy consultation is due to take place in early 2026. The policy detail is yet to be revealed, but there are encouraging signs that it will include, at the very least, a requirement that homes to the Passivhaus standard be considered ‘deemed to satisfy’ current building standards.
Passivhaus benefits
The benefits of Passivhaus have also been doing a great job of speaking for themselves. Passivhaus delivers quality assured buildings that perform as designed, avoiding the ‘performance gap’. This de-risks projects and delivers assurance as to reliable energy bill savings year on year, a massive incentive for all building types – from schools to swimming pools – as energy bills have soared in the last few years. The health benefits of Passivhaus, including summer comfort and good indoor air quality, are increasingly acknowledged, as evidenced by its citation in Homes England’s Healthy Homes guidance. These benefits, coupled with the Passivhaus project’s multiplier effect, have really helped drive the current Passivhaus upturn.
Maturity of supply chain
Passivhaus has been adopted in the UK for over 15 years now. This has given UK Passivhaus practitioners a chance to learn from and refine the process of delivering Passivhaus buildings. The lessons learnt include the importance of reducing design complexity and a focus on early-stage design, with a focus on form factor and orientation as cost-effective ‘easy wins’. It is these design refinements that are bringing down the uplift costs of Passivhaus and making it possible for mainstream developers like Barratt London to adopt Passivhaus at scale. Alongside this growing collective Passivhaus wisdom, there is also an ever-growing supply chain developing in the UK to deliver the specialist airtightness tapes and membranes, MVHR systems and triple-glazed windows that are crucial components for Passivhaus projects.
Passivhaus upskilling
The Passivhaus Trust has set an ambitious target to have Passivhaus adopted in 10% of all new housing projects over the next 5-10 years. We also want at least 50% of the industry to understand the principles behind Passivhaus.
We’re offering expanded training in universities and colleges and a comprehensive Passivhaus Learning Hub to help create a skilled and experienced supply chain of certified designers/consultants and contractors.
To amplify the Passivhaus ‘multiplier effect’, we showcase Passivhaus exemplar projects through case studies, a projects map, and Passivhaus Open Days. Our online Passivhaus Client Clubs aim to guide social housing providers through their Passivhaus journey.
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