Ian Rippin, CEO at MCS, shares why it is important that future homes are not connected to the gas grid.
As the UK faces the triple crises of energy security, energy prices and climate catastrophe, we are looking to the government to ensure no newbuild properties are connected to the gas grid. As recently reported in the Guardian, there have been suggestions that a loophole may be introduced into the Future Homes Standard (FHS) allowing properties to be connected to the gas grid if they are fitted with hydrogen-ready boilers.
Connecting new homes to the gas grid is at odds with UK’s net zero targets, not to mention the ambition to reach 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028. It is also at odds with both the Climate Change Committee’s Sixth Carbon Budget and the government’s own position on hydrogen for heating, which sees it playing a limited role, beginning in the industrial clusters of North-East and North-West England from the mid-2030s after the successful completion of the proposed village trials. Industry leaders such as Vaillant recognise a hydrogen-ready boiler fitted now is unlikely to burn anything except methane during its lifetime, and that to decarbonise heating we should be fitting heat pumps now.
We want the government to make the FHS fit-for-purpose and ensure newbuilds are future ready from 2025, ensuring they will not require expensive retrofits later.
Building smart homes for the future
One of the principal benefits of a push toward more electrification of heat is that as the grid decarbonises, so does our housing. Newbuild homes are an easy place to start this transition and set a benchmark for what home energy and heating should look like.
We want to see interoperable smart homes, where each home is a microcosm of the grid by generating its own demand and supply. Future homes must combine heat pumps, solar and battery storage, resulting in as little demand on the national grid as possible. Of course, we want to see contractors required to install these technologies to the highest standards to provide the consumer confidence in truly home-grown energy and underpin our move to net zero homes.
A truly smart home will also be able to contribute to the grid, rather than simply draw from it, greatly enhancing flexibility and demand-management. After the government consultation on energy market reforms, there is a strong likelihood that the cost of electricity will no longer be tied to the marginal price of gas, resulting in a significant decrease in energy costs for households.
Properly designed and implemented, the FHS would also provide a significant boost to the small-scale renewables sector, creating the certainty needed to invest in supply chain development and helping drive down costs, and create well-paid, future-proof green jobs, that would boost the retrofit sector – helping to decarbonise both newbuilds and our existing housing stock. For example, assuming the UK builds 150,000 homes a year, the FHS could triple or even quadruple the market for heat pumps in the UK and provide an even bigger boost if housebuilding numbers were to increase.
Importantly, all the technologies for building homes fit-for-the-future – heat pumps, solar and battery storage are commercially established and already used by millions of consumers worldwide. The costs of renewable wind and solar, because of fast development cycles and mass production, are also falling steadily. Industry standards, such as those created and maintained by MCS, can provide the consumer confidence needed to underpin the national expansion of renewable heating and energy systems.
Public opinion
A YouGov survey of MPs conducted by the MCS Charitable Foundation in February shows that 81% believe homes should be built to a standard that won’t require retrofitting, while there is also majority support for heat pumps to be mandatory for new homes with 52% of MPs saying they should be standard.
In a similar YouGov poll conducted by the Foundation in November with members of the public, an overwhelming majority think all newbuild homes should not be connected to the gas grid. In total, 87% of homeowners and tenants support new homes being built to the highest energy efficiency standard possible. In terms of home heating, 60% of people in the UK want to see heat pumps installed in all new builds.
Clearly, there is support for truly home-grown heating among both the public and in parliament. To ensure affordable, low-carbon homes that are sustainable and future-proof, the government must act now to mandate an end to new homes being connected to the gas grid as soon as possible. Turning to proven low-carbon solutions like heat pumps in new homes is not only necessary to achieve the UK’s net zero ambitions but will save consumers from costly retrofits in the future.
