Future Homes- Avoiding unintended consequences

This report was originally published on 25 July 2022 and has been updated to include chapters 18 to 21, published on 20 December 2024.

The house-building industry will soon be delivering homes with very low energy bills and low carbon emissions.

The Future Homes Standard was consulted upon in 2024, looking to mandate the transition to low carbon heating and future-proofing homes so they can become zero carbon. The expectation is that within two to three years homes will be electrically heated and incorporate a degree of self-generation through the incorporation of Solar PV.

The technology largely exists to enable this extraordinary transformation, but the knowledge, skills and practices required to deliver homes reliably and at volume, may not. With this in mind, this web-based toolkit, commissioned from Studio Partington, looks at key issues such as householder comfort, usability and resilience to climate change. 

This NHBC research project has been updated for 2024 and will continue to develop over the coming months to identify the challenges and anticipate possible consequences, thinking particularly of the householders’ needs and the things that should be in place to allow the home to function efficiently and comfortably.

The technical standards we are aiming to achieve in new homes will set the UK in the forefront of global ambitions to achieve net zero. However, achieving net zero in the operation of a new home doesn’t guarantee that a home will be comfortable, well ventilated and delightful to use, or that, during its construction, it did not have an adverse impact on the environment.

The themes of this work continue to look at wider issues such as comfort, usability and resilience to climate change, but now also consider biodiversity and water efficiency.

We intend this project to become a forum for knowledge and a stimulus for thinking about the home in use and thinking about design for future occupiers. It will be a resource for designers, builders, suppliers and home managers, sign-posting other guides and learning. We would like it to prompt discussion, identify the scale of the challenge and, hopefully, be a reminder of lessons from the recent past. 

The original website content is structured in three general themes, covering heating, ventilation and more general design considerations such as design, control and operations. New themes are introduced in the 2024 update.

The NHBC Foundation’s research programme is guided by senior representatives from the industry, for the full list of Expert panel members please click here.