Please write to your MP urging them to press the Government to implement the proposed Future Homes Standard (FHS) to make heat pumps and solar PV effectively mandatory in new buildings. The Government has said that the law for the FHS would be laid before Parliament ‘this autumn’. But autumn is ending soon (end of November according to the Met Office).
This Government, and the last Government, have spent several years inching towards adoption of the Future Homes Standard (FHS) which would make heat pumps and solar PV mandatory in most new homes. But the timetable has slipped so much that there is an increasing chance that it will be cancelled by the next (right wing?) government. Please write to your MP asking that the Government keep to their own timetable for the FHS.
In summer we were told that the legislative order for the FHS would be presented to (and approved) by Parliament this autumn. Then it would come fully into effect in January 2028. But the autumn, which according to the Met Office, ends at the end of November, is about to finish. But there is no FHS law as yet!
Because of the ‘transitional arrangements’ announced by the Government (see HERE), full application of the FHS law will not start until the beginning of 2028. That’s not so bad if the present timetable holds. But the timetable for low carbon homes has slipped consistently. We were supposed to have ‘zero carbon’ homes in 2016! Without urgent action by this Government we cannot be confident that the FHS will EVER come into force.
That is because as the timetable slips, so the chances of the FHS remaining in a sort of transitional limbo zone by the time the next Government takes office increase. And if it is Reform-led, it is highly likely that one of the first thing they would do is cancel the FHS before it comes fully into effect. The result will be that hundreds of thousands of new homes each year will be condemned to fossil fuel heating, reversible only by expensive retrofits.
So it is vitally important that as many people as possible write to their MPs on this subject. Preferably they should ask the Ministry of Housing,
Communities & Local Government (Steve Reed) to ensure that the statutory instrument is laid before Parliament by the end of November, as promised earlier in the year by the Government.
A suggested text might run something like this:
‘I am writing to you to urge the Government to press the Government to implement the proposed Future Homes Standard (FHS) to make heat pumps and solar PV effectively mandatory in new buildings. The Government have said that the law for the FHS would be laid before Parliament ‘this autumn’. But autumn is ending soon (end of November according to the Met Office).
Unless action is taken soon, the legislation may not come into effect this Parliament. This could put the law in jeopardy. Hundreds of thousands of new homes built each year will be condemned to fossil fuel heating, reversible only by expensive retrofits. Please pass this on to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government who are in charge of building regulations’.
We would be most obliged if you could pass any replies you get onto us via the 100percentrenewableuk contact email at https://100percentrenewableuk.org/contact
David Toke, Director, 100percentrenewableuk