As 2024 draws to a close we have seen a year of change, not least in the form of a new government following last July's elections.
However, there was some continuity on display in the final few weeks of the year - a reset.
Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer followed in the footsteps of his predecessor and a fair few other leaders in recent years in restating the key policies and programmes that his government is focused on.
It wasn't a reset though; this speech was all about highlighting the main milestones that Labour is planning to pass in the coming months and years.
You can package it any way you like, but if it looks like a reset and sounds like a reset, there is a good chance it is a reset.
The response was a little lukewarm, with many paraphrasing Elvis in calling for a little less conversation and demanding a lot more action.
Getting both retrofit and new build right on the energy efficiency challenge is key
Paul Groves Group Editor for Specification
What’s everyone saying?
Another crucial element was also missing. Listening.
Successive governments have been guilty of largely ignoring our wider industry, for example, and steaming ahead with the next grand plan only for it to quickly hit stumbling blocks that could have been avoided if our political leaders had listened to the input from architects, specifiers, builders, installers and product manufacturers.
There is plenty of evidence that the industry is making significant progress in areas where governments have consistently failed to address the challenges they have faced. Net zero and the future of construction and the built environment is a prime example.
Signs are encouraging that change is happening. Luke Murphy MP, the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Climate Change, joined Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment members and other expert stakeholders at an online roundtable to discuss what policies are needed to improve the energy efficiency of our buildings.
Ben Goodwin, IEMA’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs, said: “Reducing energy use by having more energy efficient buildings can significantly help us to cut the harmful emissions that are created from generating energy in the first place. It can also mean cheaper energy bills for households and businesses across the country.
“Successive policies on retrofitting existing building stock to make it more energy efficient have failed to deliver. For example, the Green Deal and subsequently the Green Homes Grant. There have also been large question marks around the ambition of policies for making future housing more energy efficient - the Future Homes Standard.
“Getting both retrofit and new build right on the energy efficiency challenge is key.”
Skills and retrofit challenge
In kicking off the roundtable the Climate Change APPG Chair focused on Labour’s manifesto pledge to upgrade five million homes over five years with the £6.6bn Warm Homes Plan, making the case for disparate delivery policies and approaches to be rationalised to do so.
The emerging approach of providing heat as a service (HaaS) was also referred to as the need to think more radically about solutions continues to grow.
“On retrofit specifically, skills shortages and inadequate training provision were cited as prohibitive factors in delivering energy efficiency measures, including high performing insulation and the installation of clean energy solutions such as heat pumps,” added Ben Goodwin.
“Overall, there was a sense that the new government needs to offer clear and long-term policy signals so that the businesses and organisations delivering energy efficiency to the market have the confidence to invest in their ability to do this at scale. The same is true for their supply chains.
“On new buildings specifically there was consensus that it is imperative that a fit for purpose Future Homes Standard is developed and delivered by the new government at pace. Particularly given the ambitious house building programme that has been announced.”
A new Standard
It is not just efficient housing the industry is leading on. Back in the autumn, a pilot version of the UK’s first cross-industry Standard for net zero carbon aligned buildings was launched. Leading organisations BBP, BRE, the Carbon Trust, CIBSE, IStructE, LETI, RIBA, RICS, and UKGBC have joined forces to champion this initiative.
The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard is a free-to-access technical standard that will enable the construction industry to robustly prove that built assets align with the UK’s carbon and energy budgets.
Until this point, there has been no single, agreed methodology for defining what ‘net zero carbon’ means for buildings in the UK. Consequently, the area has been rife with spurious claims around the topic. The Standard provides a set of consistent rules to create a level playing field around such claims.
The Standard is for anyone who wants to fund, procure, design, or specify a net zero carbon building, and for anyone who wishes to definitively demonstrate that their building is net zero carbon aligned. As a robust industry-backed initiative, the Standard should be useful to policymakers as it outlines what is needed to support the UK’s net zero carbon transition.
Time to listen
Katie Clemence-Jackson, Chair of the Standard’s Technical Steering Group, said: “The Standard has been created not just using industry data on what is achievable, but also cross-referencing this with ‘top down’ modelling of what is needed to decarbonise our industry in line with 1.5°C aligned carbon and energy budgets. It covers all the major building sectors, as well as both new and existing buildings.
“With access to the Standard, the built environment industry is equipped to target, design and operate buildings to be net zero carbon aligned, driving the positive change that we need to meet our climate goals.”
Government would be advised to listen and take notice of what industry is achieving.
The Prime Minister's milestones are now promises that provide a useful route for us all to follow his government's progress.
But he needs to make sure that early in 2025 these milestones do not quickly become millstones that begin to weigh too heavily on him and his Cabinet.
Paul Groves is Group Editor for Specification
