Is this what Green Homes success looks like?

It’s worth pointing out at the very start of this blog that there are 3 primary reasons why I push as hard as possible for us to have greener homes in the UK:

1. To increase the levels of comfort in our homes.
2. To reduce our levels of energy consumption and in turn reduce our energy bills
3. To reverse global warming

In the UK we are legally bound to reach net zero by 2050.

Around 20% of our carbon emissions come from the way we heat our buildings including homes and that is a massive contributor to global warming.

I’ve called for the government many times to go bigger and bolder with green home initiatives on both new build housing and with retrofit.

The retrofit challenge

Retrofitting existing housing stock is not easy at all.

How do you force (through legislation?), encourage (through publicity and education?), or incentivise (through government grants?), someone to make significant ecological improvements to their existing home when they have other things to worry about such as the cost of living crisis.

Retrofit at scale, across the entire country with so many existing homes being under different forms of tenure and with so many different house types, of different ages, of different construction types and with very different levels of thermal performance really isn’t easy at all.

Remember ‘The Green Deal’ that was launched back in 2013, where you could take out a loan from government to make ecological improvements to your home and you would then pay back the loan based on the savings you would make on your energy bills because of the green improvements?

The scheme just didn’t take off. It was well intentioned, but a huge failure. So, I completely get how tough retrofit is for government.

No excuses for new build though

When it comes to new build I don’t think government has any excuse.

They should be legislating to make all new build homes a whole lot greener.

The big housebuilders will say that raising the standards of the building regulations to make all new build homes a lot greener will push up house prices, but for many reasons (that i will get into in a future blog) i just don’t buy that.

The recent Spending Review from government landed at a make-or-break moment for climate action and for millions living in poorly performing homes.

Housing isn’t just part of the climate story anymore, it IS the story. We are currently miles off track meeting our net zero targets for housing, so we needed the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to be brave and bold and in fairness she was.

Right now, households are battling rising energy bills, and the industry was watching to see whether leadership will turn promises into action.

Where I have a lot of respect is the Chancellor didn’t wrap her announcements in meaningless climate slogans. She did something way smarter: she framed home retrofit as infrastructure. This puts ecological home improvements in the same ‘essential’ class as roads and rail. That is a massive shift. The chancellor was very clear that she wants to see warmer homes, lower bills, new jobs created through green home improvements and she wants to see healthier communities.

More than just numbers

So, the government has confirmed its full £13.2 billion commitment to the Warm Homes Plan.

And that matters. It’s a milestone: double the retrofit funding of the last Parliament, aiming to upgrade 5 million homes by 2029. That could mean energy bills dropping by up to £600 a year for some families and create 12,000 new green jobs to deliver it.

But this is about more than numbers. It’s a shift in tone. We’ve seen retrofit schemes fall apart before, - The Green Homes Grant was the perfect example. It was too complicated, too rushed, and lacked public trust.

This time, the funding is upfront, and it’s being delivered through local councils and social landlords who know how to get things done.

That said, a big question remains. £5 billion of the funding is classed as “financial transactions” in other words, loans or equity stakes. That might work for homeowners who can afford to borrow. But for people already stretched, the idea of taking on debt is enough to put them off entirely. Groups like the End Fuel Poverty Coalition are right to ask: where are the grants for those who need help most?

Still, credit where it’s due. There were rumours this money might be clawed back to cover other cost-of-living pressures. It wasn’t, and that’s down to real pressure from campaigners. Over 50 charities, housing groups, and climate voices stood up and demanded the government stick to its word. And for once, it did.

But fixing what’s already built is only half the story. We also need to stop the problem at source, which is where new-build standards come in.

Six years’ later

I’ve said it many times before, The Future Homes Standard is the missing piece. It was first promised back in 2019, and we’re still waiting.

The consultation closed in 2024 and we are still waiting.

When will it be announced? The best guess is sometime in the autumn.

And every month of delay really matters. Until the Future Homes Standard becomes law, housebuilders can still install gas boilers in brand-new homes.

Each month’s delay means around 10,000 homes are built that rely on fossil heating and fall short of future standards. That’s 10,000 homes a month that will need upgrading before 2035, or lock in emissions we can’t afford.

This isn’t just policy drift or missed opportunity, it’s knowingly building homes that fail the future.

Annoyingly, we’ve been here before. The last time we had a zero-carbon homes policy, it was scrapped in 2016. That still makes my blood boil. What a lost opportunity. The cost of that U-turn is still being paid, in higher bills and missed climate targets.

Everyone is ready

What’s especially frustrating is this: the industry is ready. Builders want clear rules. Heating engineers want to skill up. Campaigners want to stop repeating the same mistakes.

And the government’s own proposals sound promising: banning fossil heating, adding rooftop solar, and raising insulation standards.

But it’s all just words until the standard is in place. We’ve got the knowledge. We’ve got the technology. Now we just need the policy to catch up.

Our industry wants greener homes and the public certainly want greener homes too. So, this is a win-win for the government if they can get it right and they can  deliver.

The UK Green Building Council welcomed the full £13.2 billion commitment, but they’re right to say that ambition is one thing, delivery is another. The Federation of Master Builders made a vital point too: don’t overlook the small builders. SME’s are the ones doing retrofit on real streets, in real homes. They’re key to making this plan work at scale.

Health experts are backing the plan too. A coalition including the Royal College of Physicians made it clear: this isn’t just about cutting bills or meeting carbon targets, it’s about saving lives. Poorly performing homes worsen respiratory illness and drive-up pressure on the NHS.

Making homes energy efficient isn’t just climate action, it’s basic public health.

And the public are very much on board. Polling shows strong support for insulation and clean heating, especially when it’s framed around comfort and cost. One survey found nearly half of 2019 Labour voters would lose trust if the Warm Homes Plan was rolled back. That’s not just data, that’s people saying: please don’t mess this up.

So, I welcome the commitments made by the Chancellor in the Spending Review with regard to home retrofit. All previous governments have failed to deliver on their commitments so I hope the current government can deliver on theirs. The country needs it and our homes need it.

So, it really is time to announce and implement a strong and bold ‘Future Homes Standard’, which we have all waited too long for!

George Clarke is a TV presenter, architect, writer and Ecodan Ambassador