24 November 2025
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Mark Krull, Director at LCL Awards and Logic4training, urges UK policy makers to learn from previous mistakes in order to smooth the road to net zero, while improving living conditions for some of the UK’s most vulnerable residents.
At the time of writing, we are awaiting confirmation of the much-delayed Future Homes Standard (FHS), a set of regulations that will transform the new build market, heralding an era of housing that supports the path to net zero, while creating comfortable, healthy and cost-effective living environments and homes. What’s important now is that we maintain the momentum, avoid U-turns and learn lessons from the past.
Roll back ten years and things looked a little different. In 2015 the Zero Carbon Homes regulations were scrapped, resulting in 1.5 million homes being built to standards so poor, to bring them up to modern efficiencies will cost on average £20,000 each — a total of £30 billion. Today, the cost-of-living crisis and rising electricity bills, means many of us are ‘feeling the pinch’. The need to tackle climate change is more present than ever. One can’t help but feel more than a little annoyed that in 2015 the government at the time felt keeping housebuilders happy was the number one priority.
Some of these sub-standard properties may have ‘benefitted’ from ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme, designed to provide subsidised energy efficiency upgrades to low income and/or households with occupants suffering from health complaints such as asthma. Sounds great? It seems we can’t get this right either; a recent report identified that 98% of homes with external insulation installed under government schemes need repairs, leading to some becoming uninhabitable due to ventilation issues and subsequent mould — a shocking statistic that is even more stark following the recently passed, ‘Awaab’s law’. The result of the tragic death of Awaab, a two-year-old boy who died from mould exposure in a poorly maintained social housing home, the new law is designed to bring landlords to account; ensuring homes are built and maintained to a high standard is not just about net zero.
What’s clear to me is that we need to extricate greed and politics from decisions about how to improve the places where we spend most of our lives. The focus must be on quality and integrity. Backtracking on carbon reduction targets and introducing schemes to improve efficiency that result in buildings being in a worse state than when they started is a scandalous false economy. In almost all of these examples, it is the most vulnerable in society that suffer with the unscrupulous profiteering from their misfortune.
Renewables in particular are continually used as a political football, with constant ‘U-turns’ impacting the livelihoods of the businesses that invest in new market opportunities, while shaking people’s confidence in the benefits of moving away from fossil fuels. Recent delays to The Warm Homes Plan is just the latest example. The ‘green economy’ offers much promise to UK plc. It is creating jobs for now and countless career opportunities for the next generation, while encouraging innovation. Net zero should be a win-win scenario if the policies that facilitate it are well thought out and long lasting, they should be embedded in broadly supported law, rather than running the risk of being overturned with each new government.
Building for the future means sticking to policy, investing in skills to ensure that every new home is fit for the decades ahead. It means supporting the sector and resisting the temptation to backtrack when the going gets tough.
The Future Homes Standard represents a chance to get it right. If it has been published by the time you read this, I urge policymakers, builders, and industry leaders to seize the opportunity. Let’s build homes that are energy efficient, comfortable, and affordable to run. Let’s avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and create a legacy we can be proud of. The stakes are high, but the rewards are greater. By learning from our missteps and committing to quality, we can deliver homes that meet the needs of today and tomorrow — without leaving future generations to pick up the bill.
