46 TRACKING HOUSEBUILDERS’ STRATEGIES FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE FUTURE HOMES STANDARD INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER


margins  resulting from upgrades to uilding faric, including insulation and glaing, low-caron heating such as heat pumps, as well entilation and renewale electricity systems including solar  all increasing upfront construction costs. he oernments own impact assessment on the uture omes and uildings Standard, to gie it its full title, estimates signifi cant additional costs to usiness, which for houseuilders must either e asored or recoered from customers, in a price-sensitie maret.


he end product will e homes that emit at least  fewer caron emissions than homes uilt to  standards, ut eactly how this will e calirated and achieed will not e clear until the ome nergy odel fi nally emerges. he ey challenges for houseuilders include proiding heat pumps at scale as the central means of moing away from gas oilers. n addition, the reuirements of the S means certain changes to house design, to achiee greater air tightness, heating specifi cations, hot-water systems and installation processes.


he industry still faces shortages in trained designers of new low caron  systems, as well as installers and commissioning sills, with the latter in particular causing issues for in-use performance in some cases. ther riss for olume houseuilders include achieing consistent uality, lead times, technical support and pricing, across thousands of plots. n addition, electricity infrastructure and grid connections to support the shift to decaronisation, meaning electricity-ased deelopments, means much greater demand on the electricity grid. eelopers may need to prioritise earlier engagement with istriution etwor perators and, on larger sites, additional sustationnetwor capacity. Solar generation, eport capacity and electricity demand management also need to e considered.


he S reuires a rethin on pre-eisting house designs the changes and upgrades reuired cannot simply e olted on to eisting house types. eat pumps and associated infrastructure such as hot-water cylinders need design though applied, as do the ramifi cations of roof-mounted , insulation thicness, and thermal ridging. lso, entilation and, increasingly, oerheating reuirements can all affect fl oorplans, roof design, eleations, plot layouts, and saleale area. ore airtight, energy-effi cient homes can create oerheating issues, and indoor-air-uality riss, and entilation and shading need to e designed in a holistic, site-specifi c way to counter this. ompliance with the new art  standard goerning oerheating adds another design and coordination challenge, and some confl icts with art , particularly affecting apartments and higher-density deelopments. onstruction uality must e increased to achiee the designed uilding performance, ut also to address the performance gap that has een eperienced due to onsite compromises and challenges. irtightness, insulation continuity, thermal unctions, entilation commissioning and heat-pump siing all reuire tighter site uality control and higher sucontractor competence than may e common in preious schemes.  sustantial  of our respondents said they were ery or moderately concerned aout the performance gap currently in houseuilding. here are particular challenges where planning permissions, infrastructure agreements or house-type approals are


already in place. otential changes to eisting pre-consented schemes are liely to e reuired post-arch , or where construction doesnt egin efore arch , to mae them comply with tightened reuirements under the S. hese changes will liely increase air-tightness, new site infrastructure such as , or redesigns to include heat pump systems. hey may also mean acoustics upgrades, new sustations for increased electricity demand, or other increased plant space.


SME-SPECIFIC CHALLENGES


he S places further strain on already cash-strapped S houseuilders, attling a wea homeuying maret. arger olume uilders can spread design, training and procurement costs across thousands of plots. ne of the ey fi ndings of our surey of houseuilders was that uild cost infl ation was the iggest ris perceied y respondents around compliance, with nearly half picing this factor, although most said it would only add less than , to the cost of each house.


his shows how Ss are facing proportionately greater challenges in accessing technical epertise, training, procurement leerage and specialist consultants will e particularly confronted y such cost issues. he oernment has eplicitly considered the potential impact on Ss and resultant housing supply. he one-year transition period is welcomed, ut needs to e carefully managed y houseuilders. ssentially, they face a strategic uestion oer whether to ring forward sitesdesigns under eisting standards, or redesign pre-emptiely for the S. ur surey of houseuilders uilds on preious sureys we hae undertaen on the changes to arts ,  and the new art , and the emergence of the S itself. cnowledging the challenge for houseuilders has now eoled from understanding the Standards proisions, we canassed them on their uild strategies now the standard is here. he results help us gain a picture of how the sector is looing to delier effi cient compliance at scale without eroding margins, disrupting programmes, or eing derailed y sills and supply chain issues, grid capacity, or customer issues. s houseuilders and deelopers moe from consultation and planning toward practical implementation, our research eamined how the industry is preparing for the legally mandated deliery challenges which fi rms must address to produce energy-effi cient, net ero-ready homes. he study eplored how deelopers are adapting faric


specifi cations, heating strategies, entilation systems, glaing, renewale technologies and construction methods to meet the new reuirements. t also inestigated the ey commercial and operational pressures facing proects, including uild cost


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