PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Housing: Carbon Emissions (15 June 2021)

From 2025, the Future Homes Standard will ensure that new homes produce at least 75 per cent lower CO2 emissions compared to those built to current standards. This represents a considerable improvement in energy efficiency standards for new homes. These homes will be future-proofed with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency. No further energy efficiency retrofit work will be necessary to enable them to become zero-carbon over time as the electricity grid continues to decarbonise. Our work on a full technical specification for the Future Homes Standard has been accelerated and we will consult on this in 2023. We also intend to introduce the necessary legislation in 2024, ahead of implementation in 2025.

Decarbonising existing housing stock is also vital to achieving net zero. The Government set out its ambition in the Energy White Paper that all homes should reach Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C by 2035, where practical, cost-effective and affordable. Alongside this, the Prime Minister's Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution set a target of installing 600,000 heat pumps every year by 2028. The Heat and Buildings Strategy will set out how we intend to meet our commitments and set us on a path to decarbonising homes and buildings by 2050, while continuing to deliver greater numbers of safe and affordable new homes.

The Government has committed to consult on measures to improve the energy performance of owner-occupied homes, and we recently ran a consultation on how mortgage lenders can support homeowners to improve the energy performance of their homes. We are also considering further options and will be publishing a call for evidence to seek views on these.

For the private rental sector, homes are currently required to have an energy efficiency rating EPC E or above unless a valid exemption applies. The regulations applied to new tenancies only from April 2018, and then to all tenancies in scope from 1 April 2020. BEIS recently consulted on raising this minimum standard to EPC C for new tenancies from 2025 and all tenancies from 2028. These responses are being analysed and a response will follow.

Finally, we are currently reviewing the Decent Homes Standard, and we will ensure the review considers how the standard can work to support better energy efficiency and the decarbonisation of social homes.