Energy-efficient, sustainable new build houses are the future. However, the UK has the oldest housing stock in Europe. This is as a result of a large number of homes being built in the late 18th and 19th centuries, during the Industrial Revolution. Many of these homes still remain at the heart of our cities and towns today.
The built environment sector is tasked with bringing these 100+ year old homes up to modern day standards, and in line with the credentials of new build homes. This topic provided the basis for the final discussion point at our recent roundtable. The group of senior leaders from house builders, housing associations, architects, and specifiers discussed how green features are often ‘undervalued’ and overlooked.
Typically, energy efficiency is less of a priority to home buyers and the public, versus the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. As a solution, government-led incentives can help housebuilders and architects work together to introduce new technology into our homes to boost their sustainability credentials.
With more needing to be done to incentivise sustainable retrofitting, Polypipe Building Products representatives, along with the senior sector stakeholders around the table, shared their thoughts on supporting a greener future of housebuilding.
The obstacles of updating aging housing stock
The UK’s aging housing stock has presented significant obstacles for retrofitting. With 80% of today’s homes expected to still be in use by 2050, what this means is that there is a very real struggle of combining new technology with older systems.
With this in mind, we kicked off the session with James Parker from ADF – Architects’ Datafile asking the group:
“What short-term action should we be prioritising to ensure that our existing homes are linking energy, incentives, training, the private sector, as well as social housing? Any thoughts on the short-term retrofit priority?”
Chris Smith, Head of New Build at Polypipe Building Products responded to the question with:
“One thing we can’t do is just throw a load of air source heat pumps at properties that are not ready. It will ultimately fail without deeper thought.
“Instead, we need to have a suite of products that we can use based on the circumstances of the home concerned. The government has invested lots of money in external wall insulation, but we need to first understand if it has even touched the surface of what we’re trying to achieve regarding energy efficiency.”
So, while we do need to begin the implementation of sustainable solutions such as heat pumps, our roundtable participants highlighted that we first have to make sure these properties are ready for low-carbon heating solutions. This includes preparing them with other products that will aid and work in tandem with systems such as heat pumps. E.g., insulation and adequate plumbing.
Undervaluing sustainable buildings features in favour of bedrooms and bathrooms
The group also discussed how unique and sustainable additions to new builds are often overlooked by valuers in favour of a higher number of bedrooms or bathrooms. A knock-on effect of this is that incentives for housebuilders to offer more creative, sustainable solutions become very low. Instead, there may be more emphasis on how many rooms can be created. In the long term, the group spoke about how this is not exactly beneficial to homeowners or renters.
When talking about the value we put on the number of bedrooms and bathrooms over other creative solutions, David de Sousa, Director at AHR said:
“It puts the shackles on innovation in terms of architects. It means that we’re not thinking about the spaces in terms of the people who are going to live there, but rather what adds perceived value.”
He continued by saying that ‘there needs to be a higher weighting on innovation’.
Danielle Michalska, Group Technical Innovation Manager at Barratt Redrow, agreed and said that this can impact lenders, as house type valuations traditionally focus on number of locations, number of bedrooms etc, but there is a growing opportunity to highlight well ventilated, energy efficient space that embrace modern technology.
A further point discussed by the group was how there should be a higher value placed on energy-efficient properties, and that there needs to be a greater incentive to encourage buyers and renters alike to want to move into these homes.
Talking about this, Kerry Heath BSc Hons, MA, FCIH, FRICS, Director of Sales and Development at Hexagon Housing Association, said:
“This is the kind of thing that would change the marketplace.”
She highlighted how lower payments on more energy-efficient homes would not only benefit homeowners but also promote a desire to move into these new builds. Therefore, when building sustainable new homes and retrofitting, we need to maintain momentum through such incentives. In the long term, energy bills are lower, and homes are also more financially sustainable.
Is energy efficiency less of a priority to the public when looking for a new home?
Linking to our point above, the panel also spoke about how the priority is not energy efficiency when looking for a new home. Instead, aesthetic considerations like new kitchens or ease of convenience to local transport and schools are placed higher up the list.
To expand on this idea about homeowner priorities, Kate Watson, RISE Technical Lead and Sustainability Consultant from Turner & Townsend said:
“When looking for a new home, you’re looking for local schools, how you’ll get to work, or if there’s adequate car parking. Whilst energy efficiency is important to many, other factors often sway decision making currently.”
She continues:
“There was a government report published in the twenty tens that showed homes located near a green space or park would sell for more than those that aren’t.”
Kate Watson also spoke about her experience talking to estate agents about driving energy efficiency in the sales process for new homeowners. However, it was highlighted how providing EPCs would cause potential issues for private rental landlords. This is a further blocker when it comes to bringing the importance of energy efficiency into the main considerations when hunting for a new home.
Balancing sustainability and affordability in Social Housing
The discussion moves on to discuss how the Social Housing Act can present barriers to the practical realities of installing modern HVAC systems. Low-carbon solutions can be costly to install. However, the principle of social housing is that it is meant to remain affordable for its residents, and the cost of new HVAC systems can’t be passed on through increased service charges. Much of the UK’s social housing stock is old and not built to support modern climate control systems. As already discussed, retrofitting these buildings can be expensive, disruptive, and sometimes and in some cases not viable.
Housing associations are being encouraged to invest in greener alternatives like heat pumps, improved insulation, and passive ventilation. These initiatives add pressure on landlords to meet new quality and safety standards. Any upkeep and maintenance of the HVAC systems can also be expensive than more traditional heating systems. This tension between the need to modernise old housing stock and its need to remain affordable is an ongoing battle that landlords and social housing organisations currently face.
Smart ventilation systems can protect homeowners and renters
Another issue addressed in the roundtable was a lack of progression for smart technology in our homes. While we may be progressive in the technology in our vehicles, we are not so forward-thinking when it comes to our own homes. And there is an apprehension about involving tech in heating and cooling systems.
David de Sousa said:
“If you look at the automotive industry, our cars have more technology in them than our homes. It seems a bit crazy.”
He continued by explaining how the time spent in our cars is comparatively low to how much time we spend in our homes. Yet, we are still lacking the adoption of smart solutions. As a resolution, the group discussed the future of linking smart devices to ventilation systems to better manage air flow and humidity in homes.
The group discussed the dangerous ramifications of poor ventilation and how smart systems can help. In order to drive a behavioural change in the prevention of damp, mould, and condensation, homeowners can be protected by smart systems.
However, another major blocker addressed by the group was the lack of public buy-in and general understanding of home tech. This said, the group agreed that more education is needed on tech that can greatly improve homes across the UK. This is an area that needs more support in the future.
Is a lack of skilled labour indicative of slow progress in reaching targets?
A skills shortage across the industry has already been highlighted by Rachel Reeves as an issue that could prevent Labour from achieving housebuilding targets. It is also an issue when it comes to retrofitting and the general modernisation of homes in the UK. The group discusses how this has presented barriers to retrofitting efforts.
At the roundtable, it was emphasised that we need workforce training across trades, and especially in heat pump fitting. Talking about the blockers on new sustainable initiatives like heat pumps, Amelia C., Senior Communications Officer at Wandle Housing Association, said:
“The plan to increase air source heat pump installations and replace the need for new gas connections to new builds is stalling due to a lack of skills.”
Through training schemes such as government-funded apprenticeships and courses, we can encourage a new generation into the industry to help meet targets and improve the sustainability of current homes across the country. This topic features frequently throughout the entire roundtable.
Infrastructure challenges are halting an all-electric switch
While the group was in agreement that an all-electric switch would be ideal, the infrastructure isn’t in place yet to support this drastic change. The infrastructure challenges in the industry mean an immediate shift to all-electric heating is impractical.
Amelia Charman said:
“We’ve got sites where we would quite happily go all-electric now, and we can’t.”
She went on to mention how there are issues with grid capacity and the export of batteries due to limits and restrictions that are halting progress. Likewise, Kate Watson shares issues of four year wait-lists for solar parks to be connected due to issues with the grid’s capacity.
However, microgrids with battery storage were highlighted as an option for housing providers, and the group spoke about how social housing providers are using them for some new builds in the UK. Still, there is a long way to go for housebuilders wanting to make that all-electric switch.
Learning from government-led campaigns and initiatives
To finish off this final instalment of our roundtable, Kate Watson spoke about how past government-led public awareness campaigns, like the North Sea gas initiative, could be used as a template to drive the adoption of sustainable heating technologies.
She explained how a similar initiative, ‘to get people onto gas and stop burning coal’ was needed now for low-carbon heating solutions. Despite the move to low or zero carbon being sustainable and a step in the right direction, the issue is that the government is unlikely to run a large-scale campaign like this at present.
However, on the other hand, Chris Smith highlighted a recent Warm Front initiative from the government. This saw hundreds of thousands of boilers placed into homes across the UK. This shows that it is possible, and a similar low-carbon alternative needs to be done with existing homes across the country.
To find out more about how the built environment sector’s leaders see a successful implementation of new heating and ventilation technologies, follow our social feed and read our previous blog posts from the roundtable series.
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