The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has announced that from 2-8 February, the New Homes Week campaign will centre around the ‘Power to Move’
New Homes Week 2026 will see partnerships and appearances from Octopus Energy, Rightmove, and Zoopla, as well as several lifestyle influencers.
The week is an annual campaign that the HBF uses to draw attention to the benefits of new-build homes and encourage young buyers to consider them.
New-build homes are a good option in the current economic climate
Amongst issues with affordability and market challenges, along with the government’s drive to build more homes, the HBF are promoting new-build houses as cheaper, lower maintenance, and future-proof.
The theme for 2026’s campaign targets ensuring home purchasers understand and can make informed decisions about their next property, both new-build or otherwise.
Octopus Energy are the flagship partner of the campaign and will showcase low-carbon technologies that are built directly into new-build homes to bring energy efficiency and savings to the owners.
Rianna Fry, director of digital communications at the Home Builders Federation, said: “For over two decades, New Homes Week has brought the industry together to champion the progress made in delivering high-quality, energy-efficient homes. Often, the benefits available to buyers are overlooked amidst wider market challenges. Buyer satisfaction for new builds is at record levels and new builds continue to outperform on efficiency, while home builders offer meaningful support to help households onto and up the property ladder. This year we are determined to cut through the noise and give consumers the clear, trusted information needed to make the key decisions about their move.”
Nigel Banks, zero bills director at Octopus Energy, said: “Living without home energy bills is not a futuristic dream – we have hundreds of customers who are living that reality today, thanks to the latest smart tech in their new homes.
“Partnering with HBF means we can show how new homes kitted out with cutting-edge tech can deliver comfortable, sustainable living, and can even cut home energy bills down to zero.”
Housing viability at its lowest in 15 years, say HBF
Yesterday, the HBF released their latest Housing Pipeline report, finding that in Q3 2025, just 42,000 homes were given planning permission. This is a drop of 31% from Q3 2024, and marks the lowest viability for UK housebuilding in 15 years.
Neil Jefferson, chief executive at the Home Builders Federation, said: “Today’s figures paint a very worrying picture for future housing supply. The positive planning reforms announced this week are very positive, but home builders continue to grapple with rising policy costs and new taxes, making investment hard to justify.
“Building on improvements to both the planning system and the planning process, ministers now need to consider these rising taxes, new levies and excessive policy costs that make many sites unviable to develop.
“Meanwhile, the lack of affordable mortgage lending is preventing many young people without access to the Bank of Mum and Dad from getting onto the housing ladder, undermining the industry’s ability to build more homes and further entrenching social inequalities.”
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