HOUSEBUILDING SPECIAL
I
n the past 10 years, the population of the UK has grown by about four million people, with an average household size of 2.4 people. Assuming a stable population growth rate, that equates to an additional annual requirement of 170,000 new homes to add to the current backlog which some estimate to be around 4.3 million homes.1 That’s one additional new home being built and delivered to the UK market every three minutes just to prevent the housing crisis getting worse. The Government’s target, which also aims to tackle this backlog, is nearly double that at 300,000 homes per year by mid-2020s.2,3 Even if this target is reached (it hasn’t been yet – a high point of only 243,000 new homes reached in 2019/2020), it could take 50 years or more to clear the housing deficit. We can therefore expect demand and pressure to “build, build, build” to remain high and at the forefront of Government’s mind for decades to come. This runs against another Government target which is to reduce carbon emissions and achieve net zero by 2050. Indeed, whilst various initiatives aim to reduce its impact, the construction industry remains horribly climate-unfriendly, with residential & nonresidential building and the required building materials generating over 35% of the global energy demand and energy-related CO2 emissions – see Fig. 1.4 As a key contributor to the world’s most pressing challenge, the construction sector has a golden opportunity to make a significant contribution to net zero by innovating, changing deep-seated habits and turning to established sustainable alternatives and know-how. But this much needed transformation is slower than it could be because constructors are often incentivised to minimise constructions costs rather than life-cycle costs, CO2 emissions and its impact on nature. That is why even today so many new homes are still being built with gas boilers and to the minimum-allowed insulation standards. These
SUSTAINABLE HOUSING
won’t cost the earth
New housing proposals should not homes will require more only benefit developers expensive retrofitting and but also existing disruption in years to come as legislation and standards communities that tighten to meet the UK’s 2050 may fear change net zero or disruption target.
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Pro Landscaper | July 2023
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Following Chris Skidmore MP’s independent review of net zero,6 the direction of travel is that no new homes should be built with gas boilers from 2025 and that the Government should adopt a 10-year campaign to make heat pumps mainstream. That said, some fear that powerful lobbying will create loopholes to allow homes in England to be fitted with “hydrogen-ready” gas boilers.7 This would risk
tying millions of households to fossil fuel use for the longer-term, damage the UK’s credibility as a global leader in sustainability and, crucially, may put at risk our legallybinding 2050 net zero target.8 Figure 1
6% Other
22% Residential
Global industry share in final energy demand, 2020, % of total
26% Transport 8% Non-residential 26% Other industry
Source: UN Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2021
6% Buildings construction industry 6% Other construction industry
Graph is adapted from a graph on page 39 of this report: https://globalabc.org/sites/default/files/2021-10/GABC_Buildings-GSR-2021_BOOK.pdf
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