UK Government Considers Housing Standards as New Study Reveals £1,341 Annual Savings with Low-Carbon Homes

For economic growth and national renewables, the plans of the Labour party in the UK revolve around building 1.5 million homes at priority

As experts encouraged the government to amend the restrictions on housing development, a new study has shown that building new homes to low-carbon standards will save the inhabitants thousands of pounds.

People living in a semi-detached house or in a typical three bedroom newly built home could save an average of £1,341 every year with the in-built low carbon standards. The house may benefit the occupants if it is equipped with solar panels, high grade insulation, a heat pump and battery storage. 

According to modelling which is carried out by the MCS Foundation Charity, the sum may total to almost £46,612 over a 25-year mortgage term. 

Although this was unknown in the past and therefore there have been hundreds of thousands of homes in the pipelines and millions of more homes without this equipment being built in recent years. 

For economic growth and national renewables, the plans of the Labour party in the UK revolve around building 1.5 million homes at priority. Although there is an uncertainty for these homes to be built to the highest possible standards of insulation and low carbon technology. 

The UK government is presently contemplating how to react to a survey on a Future Homes Standard prepared by the previous government, while experts believe it might go into effect next year. While the government has hinted that it may oblige developers to put solar panels into new homes, a measure rejected by the previous Tory government, as well as heat pumps or low-carbon networks. There is one question that always remains, whether or not to impose battery storage.

Reduction in carbon emissions and the greatest energy bill savings are achieved when the solar panels and battery storage are combined with heat pumps as per a research by MCS. This gives results of the energy bills lowering by three times when compared to installing the heat pumps alone. 

According to the modelling, energy expenditures for an ordinary three-bedroom, semi-detached home with a heat pump would be £1,764 per year, compared to £603 if solar panels were also installed, representing a £1,161 annual savings. With battery storage, the savings amount to £1,342.

It is also important to keep the number of solar panels in check. 

Some developers were known to be installing very few solar panels for the size of the house, said the operations manager at Gusto Construction, based in Nottinghamshire, Nigel Ward. This neglects to check that they were positioned correctly to maximize sunlight.

Building a home with low carbon standards is not hard as the technology is new but not something which has not been heard before. But the technology does require extra attention and care. 

Ward added that huge housing developers were “purely thinking about profits” when they continued to build dwellings to minimum standards, with gas boilers and no low-carbon equipment.

Experts have also told the Guardian that they are concerned that the Labour administration may cave in to housing developers’ efforts to reduce future dwelling criteria, claiming that they can construct more rapidly and inexpensively without such high standards.

The homes built with low carbon standards can be built more cheaply if the developers do not need to incorporate high grade insulation and meet the stringent regulations on airtightness. This is the case if they wish to build with gas boilers instead of heat pumps. 

The government estimates that equipping homes with low-carbon technologies will increase the cost of building by around £5,000. It is up to the developers whether or not to pass such costs on to the homebuyer.

Anger has developed in recent years at the previous government’s failure to rein in the housing sector, which was a significant contributor to the Conservative Party. Lord Deben, a former Tory environment minister and former leader of the Climate Change Committee, recently slammed the “crap” homes that the UK has been building for years, after plans for stricter standards were abandoned in 2015.