The Future Homes and Buildings Standards

The Government are now working on the consultation responses and Home Energy Model following the public consultation on changes to Part 6 (Scottish Building Standards), Part L and Part F of the Building Regulations for dwellings and non-domestic buildings that concluded in March 2024.

Timescales

It is currently expected there will be an announcement in Spring 2025, this is expected to include the consultation responses and a free MHCLG tool to help understand the intricacies and new inputs of the Home Energy Model. In addition to this, Elmhurst are also confirmed to be working on their Home Energy Model application, but as of this moment do not have a fixed timeline for its release.

It is our understanding that the new regulations are expected to be made towards the end of this year / start of next year.

Proposed Changes

Whilst we will have to wait until this announcement to have confirmed details of the changes being incorporated with the Future Homes Standard, the following are anticipated:

  • The primary change focuses on a shift from gas to electric heating, virtually eliminating fossil fuels as a compliance option.  The revised standards will advocate air source heat pumps being the only systems used for space heating purposes;
  • It is expected there will a minimum 75% reduction in carbon emissions compared to the Part L 2013 regulations;
    • Consequently, all dwellings will need to include air source heat pumps and photovoltaic panels (PV);
  • Fabric performance targets and limiting values are expected to approximately remain the same as Part L 2021 regulations due to the diminishing returns offered by improving them beyond current standards;
  • A new notional dwelling will be introduced to establish the compliance standards; however, how this will look isn’t finalised. As part of the consultation, two options were proposed for the new notional dwelling:
    • Option 1 included a variety of energy efficient features such as PV, a wastewater heat recovery system, and a decentralised mechanical ventilation (dMEV) system. Option 2, however, didn’t include for these features.
    • Both options included an air source heat pump and had the fabric standards that were near identical to that of Part L 2021 regulations.
  • A 12-month transitional agreement is expected to apply on a plot-by-plot basis.
    • For transitional arrangements to apply to individual buildings, developers will need to submit a building / initial notice or deposited plans in advance of the FHS coming into force and commence work on each individual building within the ensuing twelve month period. 

We will aim to keep all our clients up to date with any official developments when we hear more.  Should you have any queries then please don’t hesitate to contact a member of our energy and building physics team.

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