Future Homes Hub’s Post

Transcript

It is three years since the Future Homes Hub was created and we have come a long way. It is creating partnerships. Building strong connections with industry, government, the supply chain, finance and beyond. Over the last 12 months, I've seen a real shift across the industry and the supply chain with a growing acceptance and commitment to the decarbonization of new homes. There's, you know, huge amount of work that we need to do as organizations and as individuals. Carbon is one challenge, there are lots of challenges. We've got to deliver a lot of houses in the UK, we have a great shortage, we've got biodiversity challenges, water challenges. So it's bringing all those things together and trying to reconcile them and working together as an industry is keen. We are custodians of our planet and we have an obligation to minimize the effects of living in the now so that the future generations can enjoy the same, if not better, quality of life. Last year we launched the One Plan, a shared pathway towards building a generation of high quality, sustainable homes and communities. Working together, we have made significant progress. The Hub has worked with home builders of all sizes and with the support of the Carbon Trust, to produce the first sector wide net zero transition plan for new homes. A lot of it's around collaboration, it's around understanding each other's carbon transition journeys. Decarbonising heat from buildings is not optional if the UK is to meet its carbon emission reduction ambitions. The future home standard means that all new homes will be 0 carbon as the grid decarbonised very rapidly in line with the Government's clean power. Vision for 20-30 all house builders now are are embracing this more actively and certainly exploring new ways of heating energy systems across new homes, piloting solar panels, heat pumps. What we've decided to do at Taylor Wimpey, which is very exciting, is trial 5 houses on a live site. At every stage of this trial, we've been relentless at recording lessons. All of this information puts us in a very good position to navigate our way to future home standards and make the right decisions. As we prepare for the future, the industry needs to respond to the challenge of reducing embodied carbon quite collaboratively. We've invested about ��300 million in efficiency, more efficient capacity, I think of our new Atlas Pathfinder brick factory, but this actually took 50% of embodied carbon out of the products. We know that nature is in trouble. If you listen and you look, you'll see that nature's vanishing from around you. The sector has risen to the challenge of biodiversity net gain, so that as we build new homes, we are also improving nature. What that means in practice is we're incorporating a range of habitats and waterways into our developments and bringing nature into the places that we're building. We start now with mapping the natural asset to start with working with landscape architects and then really integrating into our designs how we can deliver biodiversity net gain from the start. Our diversity net gain regulation in itself won't change the industry. It's about changing cultures, it's about changing people's behaviors towards this important issue. What's really lovely about. Homes for Nature initiative is it's actually relatively simple and inexpensive measures that can be applied to every home. I think the most impressive thing that developers can do is establish a wetland features. Consider creating ponds, swales, rain gardens. Water is life. Where there is water you will find a plethora of of of species. I would say that we're actually running out of water right now right across the UK and people simply don't realise it. Economic growth, housing growth, the Internet, human life, schools, transport, nothing happens without water. Home builders have worked with the water sector to set out a long term road map to improving water efficiency so that as water resources become more pressured we are ready for the future and can build the homes the country needs sustainably. I really love the future home Subs approach to bringing. Everybody in the Water Ready report sets out a really clear road map for what we need to do in 202520302035 is something that everybody can get behind and draws a line in the sand. So because we were all involved in putting it together, we all can really be committed to delivering it. Fundamentally, as we tackle these environmental challenges of carbon, energy, water and nature, we have an opportunity to create better and more attractive communities, both for the immediate residents and for the wider population. It's not just about saving energy and saving carbon when we build new houses, it's creating really lovely, healthy, comfortable places to live. We're building 32 of the most complex brownfield developments in cities in London and the Southeast. It's so important we get these right. We've got to identify our cities. We need to create fantastic places. We need to get biodiversity net gain, bring nature back into our towns and cities. We are designing schemes currently with a legacy LED approach when it comes to. Placemaking. So it's really important that we work across the disciplines, across the professions to ensure that we're planning for the right homes in the right places with the right technology so that we can not only mitigate against these environmental challenges, we're also helping to improve the overall situation. All starts with a plan. We have shared metrics for the first time, we can consistently benchmark performance and track our collective progress. These metrics are important because they allow us to robustly measure and understand our performance and to communicate with credibility how we are rapidly improving the way we build new homes for our customers, for the UK public and the planet. We as a sector have an important role to play in meeting those challenges and decarbonizing. Homes and Communities. We build the Future Homes Hub, which I think is a fantastic initiative and we probably should have had it about 20 years ago, but now we have it. It's going to be a critical friend, a critical partner in helping to join the dots and bring everybody together. I've been quite encouraged to see a lot more collaboration and curiosity. I am optimistic for the future. Our industry understands its role, sees its importance and enjoys a challenge. I see an industry full of talented people working together towards a shared goal. The Hub would not exist without you. I'm enormously grateful for the support, time and expertise from across the industry. Together we can build sustainably. Creating homes and places where people and nature can thrive. At the pace and scale the country needs.