Within a flurry of announcements in Labour’s first month in office, the new government announced plans for a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to provide strategic direction in overhauling the UK’s planning system. Following 10,000 responses and extensive engagement with the industry, the new NPPF has now been revealed. With so much focus on new homes, our owner and chair Derek Horrocks discusses why we must not lose sight of the decarbonisation sector, and where the visions for new homes align with existing ones.
In the first few months since winning the election, it’s clear that Labour has been putting housing at the cornerstone of its plans. The UK currently sits in a large housing deficit, which in turn is impacting the economy, people’s ability to get on the property ladder, and availability of much-needed affordable or social homes. When considering this, it’s not a huge surprise to see high housing targets – now set at 370,000 new homes annually.
However, it’s important that with new-build homes taking centre stage in this discussion, we don’t lose focus on the work to be done on our existing housing stock – which can create or open up lots of homes from another avenue.
Though brilliant progress has been made in recent years installing retrofit decarbonisation measures in UK homes to bring them up to at least EPC rating C, there is still lots to do. The recent Autumn Budget built on this further, and along with the ongoing commitment to the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (previously the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund) and Warm Homes: Local Authority Grant is promising. It’s clear that the government understands the private sector’s expertise and delivery potential – but just like for new homes, continued collaboration is required.
The government has outlined this all working towards a mission of making sure people have affordable, safe, decent, and comfortable homes. That’s the same mission we are on with decarbonising housing.
Specialising in retrofit decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures on a huge scale, we have the know-how and experience that clients need to maintain high-quality, healthy homes. Additionally, being on the ground installing these measures gives us unique insight into what works well and what doesn’t, which allows us to continually feedback to the government on this.
Most importantly, we have that strong understanding of the difference good quality housing can have on people’s lives – tackling the ongoing health and wellbeing, cost of living, and energy affordability crises while also working towards net zero.
So now is not the time to take our foot off the pedal. We need to keep building on the already-strong momentum – making sure work to decarbonise and retrofit existing homes works in tandem with building new to meet the requirements of every local area and community.
To read more about our projects and work, visit: www.sustainablebuildinguk.com/projects
