With international climate talks on the horizon and gas prices skyrocketing, it is important that new homes are built to proper standards of energy conservation that anticipate the move to net zero carbon over the next few decades.   This also means building in domestic energy generation such as solar panels and heat pumps.  It is therefore concerning, that whilst the involvement of Homes England has generally been positive in ensuring new infrastructure to support the new houses in the Northern Arc, there is a big negative in not requiring developers to build houses that incorporate proper levels of energy conservation and microgeneration.

Why is a government agency still building houses schemes without any onsite renewable energy generation or insisting on low carbon homes, for example by using heat pumps?   These could be built into new homes at a fraction of the cost of reengineering existing housing, yet Homes England is ignoring calls from councillors of all parties to step up its game.  Government announcements today of the phasing out of gas boilers by 2035 means new homes are being built with heating systems which will be redundant in a few years, and developers should be forced to ensure proper standards for energy conservation.

Mid Sussex District Council could also support this process, council’s do have some ability for force developers to take action, for example some local authorities require all new housing developments and new developments for other uses of 100sqm floorspace or more to generate 30 per cent of their operational energy requirements through decentralised, district heating and, renewable and low-carbon energy sources.