6.0 Proposed Technical Standard
Our proposed Homes for the Future Technical Standard would provide clarity around the targets that must be achieved and the potential methods of achieving them. It provides a long-term ambition to short-term progressive changes and allows industry to evolve solutions in response. It reflects ambitions in both national and regional policy and, as such, aims to incentivise:
- a speedier and more comprehensive adoption of more productive and assured outcome building techniques
- a higher standard of energy performance compared with the Building Regulation changes, and
- reduced embodied carbon in construction that is not part of Building Regulations at present.
Measuring performance standards
The Technical Standard translates these objectives into measurable performance standards with increasing target levels of performance from the current baseline to 2030. Those measures and targets are considered under headings:
Construction: More productive building techniques
- This is measured using the Pre-Manufactured Value (PMV) metric which calculates the material proportion of a building project's cost as opposed to other cost factors including plant, labour, and management. This is a proxy metric for the extent of AMC/MMC as the greater the extent of AMC/MMC, the greater the material element relative to other project costs. PMV is already used as a tool by Homes England to incentivise AMC/MMC use.
- PMV does not favour any building technology over another, and increased PMV can be achieved in a number of ways, providing developers with the space to innovate and develop efficient models of delivery without specifying which construction methodologies should be pursued.
Sustainability: More new energy efficient homes
Through a mix of careful design, enhanced fabric efficiency and the inclusion of non-fossil fuel energy sources such as heat pumps and solar panels, the aim is to incentivise the delivery of new, more energy efficient homes. Two industry standard metrics are used to measure these requirements:
- the energy intensity of a new home: the amount of energy required to use it, proportional to its size
- the space heat demand: a measure that describes the amount of heat required to heat a building and maintain the inside at a particular temperature.
The achievement of these standards places requirements on developers to use higher performing building materials, different heating technologies, and to design for high energy performance from the outset.