Ben Standing, partner, and Felicity Zakers, associate, at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, discuss how the need for more housing can help to reach climate goals
Rather than treating sustainable building as a regulatory burden, the construction industry has an opportunity to redefine high-quality housing while meeting environmental goals – if it can successfully shift its messaging from climate obligations to consumer advantages
The UK faces two monumental challenges: a critical housing shortage and ambitious climate commitments
The Labour government has pledged to deliver 1.5 million new homes within five years while simultaneously progressing towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. These objectives should be natural allies, yet current policy approaches treat them as separate, even competing priorities.
With the built environment accounting for about a third of Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions, created both during construction and throughout a property’s lifetime, integrating sustainability principles into the national building programme seems logical.
However, the construction industry finds itself caught between delivering volume quickly and meeting increasingly stringent environmental standards without clear direction.
This disconnect threatens to create a legacy of millions of new homes that will require expensive and difficult retrofitting within years of completion — a scenario that would waste both financial resources and public goodwill.
For policymakers and developers, therefore, a roadmap is urgently required to build environmentally friendly homes on a massive scale.
Setting clear standards should provide not only certainty and future-proof stock, but also offer an opportunity to reframe the narrative around what we mean by sustainable housing, making it easier to achieve buy-in from developers, consumers and the wider public.
Shifting political dynamics demand new messaging
The political landscape around green policies is becoming increasingly complex. Reform UK’s recent success in local elections reflects a growing public weariness with policies framed primarily around climate targets. Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair has cautioned that the speed of take-up for net-zero policies is outpacing public acceptance.
It’s therefore imperative to reframe the conversation about green homes. Rather than emphasising abstract carbon reduction targets, the focus must shift to immediate and tangible benefits for homeowners and occupants.
The evidence suggests that consumers aren’t prepared to pay more or sacrifice quality of life simply for the sake of environmental credentials. However, they are increasingly receptive to solutions that reduce energy bills, enhance comfort, and potentially generate income – benefits that sustainable homes can deliver without explicitly invoking net-zero terminology.
For example, a 2024 Oxford Economics study found consumers were willing to pay 3.4% more on average for a high energy-efficient home (A or B rated) compared with Band D. This followed a survey from Censuswide the previous year, which found that 57% of UK consumers were willing to pay more for a house with renewable or low-carbon energy sources like solar panels, heat pumps or EV chargers.
Speed up Future Homes Standard implementation
Green housing criteria had been expected by now. However, we are still awaiting the proposed Future Homes Standard, despite it being announced under Theresa May’s government in the 2019 Spring Statement.
The stated ambition was for new homes to produce 75% to 80% fewer carbon emissions than under current building regulations, with a focus on improving heating and hot water systems, and reducing heat waste to achieve decarbonisation.
Yet despite a mooted 2025 implementation date and numerous consultations along the way, no concrete timelines or details have followed. The industry awaits a firm preference from the government on the varying roles of heat pumps, hydrogen, biomass, biomethane, battery storage and other technologies in the domestic energy mix, as well as types of materials and insulation used during construction.
Until this month when solar panels were added to the standard, the only meaningful changes had come from tweaks to building regulations in 2021, which introduced new standards for ventilation, energy efficiency, and minimum insulation.
In early June, the government finally announced that the “vast majority” of new-build homes in England must be fitted with solar panels. This marks a significant step forward given that industry body Solar Energy UK’s figures show just four in 10 new homes in England feature solar power.
But this is only one small piece of the jigsaw – the Future Homes Standard, now expected to be set out in full this autumn, still holds the key to implementing a meaningful move towards green housing becoming the norm.
Voluntary green housing schemes
In the absence of concrete action regarding the Future Homes Standard, several voluntary certification schemes have popped up to drive energy efficiency in residential buildings. These include BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), Passivhaus, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and the WELL Building Standard.
A cross-industry group, representing stakeholders across the built environment in Britain, also joined forces last year to launch a pilot UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, which sets out metrics by which net-zero-aligned performance is evaluated.
Many social housing providers are particularly interested in green housing due to their desire to reduce tenants’ bills.
Sanctuary, one of the UK’s largest housing and care providers with about 125,000 units under its management, is part of the Greener Futures Partnership, collaborating with other large housing associations to enhance energy efficiency. Its Newfield Square development in Glasgow, comprising 178 homes for social rent and sale, meets Passivhaus standards.
Commercial developers are also increasingly investing in green technologies. Mace, a UK-based global consultancy and construction firm, is a founding member of groups such as CO2nstructZero, SteelZero, and ConcreteZero, advocating for the responsible procurement of key building components. Its urbanest Battersea 853-bed student accommodation project is the UK’s largest Passivhaus building.
Across the wider construction industry, however, green housing principles tend to be embedded within specific projects rather than entire development pipelines. This is because equipping homes with green technologies, such as heat pumps, solar panels, and battery storage, remains an expensive endeavour, while raw materials and relevant skills are scarce.
Economics must work for consumers
For widespread adoption, government energy schemes need to deliver faster returns on investment. Consumers are understandably reluctant to make significant upfront investments in technology that might take 10 to 15 years to break even. The psychology of home improvements is typically anchored to much shorter payback periods.
People may be interested in solar panels, heat pumps or battery storage if these technologies are subsidised and can provide immediate protection against energy price volatility. However, such subsidies represent a substantial cost for government programmes.
This economic reality underscores the critical importance of incorporating green technologies at the construction stage. Retrofitting existing properties is consistently more expensive and disruptive than incorporating sustainable features during the initial construction.
Achieving the government’s ambition for 300,000 new homes each year is one thing, but these must be built to high environmental standards from the outset. This would avoid future retrofitting costs and help create economies of scale in supply chains for green technologies and materials.
This approach requires clear legislation mandating these standards for new construction, which would drive down costs through increased production volumes while simultaneously developing the necessary skills base within the construction industry.
Learning from successful consumer transitions
For the construction industry, it can learn valuable lessons from the automotive sector, which has seen a gradual rise in electric vehicle sales relative to petrol and diesel alternatives in recent years, with EV sales rising sixfold between 2018 and 2024.
This hasn’t been achieved by emphasising net-zero targets, but by highlighting that EVs are becoming considerably cheaper to run — a practical benefit that resonates with consumers’ financial priorities.
Similarly, we’ve already witnessed successful transitions in housing products that were once considered environmentally-friendly “upgrades” but are now standard features. Double and triple glazing, loft insulation and the removal of inefficient features like upstairs fireplaces have become normalised not because of their green credentials, but because consumers understand and value their practical benefits in terms of comfort and cost savings.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has accelerated this trend, prompting more conversations around energy security and costs. This has created a greater appetite among homeowners for efficiency measures that insulate them from volatile energy markets – a powerful selling point that doesn’t require explicit reference to climate goals.
Resetting the narrative: Green housing as a mark of quality and comfort
All these considerations should help developers when going to market. Rather than focusing solely on carbon reduction targets and environmental regulations, they should consider emphasising how sustainable homes deliver superior comfort, reduced running costs, and a better quality of life for residents.
There’s a significant opportunity to transform the perception of new-build housing here. Almost a third (32%) of people described new-build housing as “poor quality” in a 2023 consumer survey by the Chartered Institute of Building.
By positioning green features as premium benefits that enhance comfort and reduce energy bills, the industry can rebuild consumer confidence in new-build properties. Homes that maintain comfortable temperatures year-round, provide predictable energy costs insulated from market volatility, allow residents to charge electric vehicles overnight at lower rates or sell excess solar-generated electricity back to the grid during peak demand period represent a compelling value proposition beyond environmental considerations.
Generating excitement around these innovative features could also make the sector more attractive to new workers, who are essential to driving the green transition.
The Construction Industry Training Board estimates that an additional 350,000 full-time construction workers — including project managers, plumbers, and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) specialists — will be required by 2028 to support decarbonisation efforts.
The government’s £600m plan to establish 10 technical excellence colleges, which will train up to 60,000 additional engineers, bricklayers, electricians and carpenters, is a great start, but more thinking is needed on incentivising firms to create their own apprenticeships and retraining programmes.
Time for decisive action and clear messaging
The construction industry stands at a pivotal moment. With proper framework and messaging, the 1.5m homes planned for the next five years could represent a new golden age for housing that delivers both environmental sustainability and superior living experiences. Without it, we risk perpetuating the cycle of poor-quality housing that will require expensive remediation in the future.
The political will exists to build these homes, and the technology exists to make them sustainable. What’s missing is the regulation and messaging to connect these objectives in a way that resonates with consumers and aligns with their priorities.
For this transformation to succeed, the government must provide clarity through the long-delayed Future Homes Standard. Developers must also embrace these principles throughout their pipelines, rather than in isolated showcase projects. Furthermore, a collaborative effort is required to upskill the workforce.
By taking lessons from other successful consumer transitions – like the standardisation of double glazing or the growing EV market – the housing sector can demonstrate green features aren’t just about saving the planet but about creating homes that are warmer in winter, cooler in summer, cheaper to run and even financial assets.
This isn’t just about meeting abstract targets – it’s about fundamentally changing what consumers expect from a high-quality home.
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