10% target for new homes to Passivhaus standard

The new chair of the Passivhaus Trust, Emma Osmundsen, assistant director of housing regeneration for Ealing Council, has spearheaded Exeter City Council’s ambitious Passivhaus programme both for housing and the UK’s first Passivhaus leisure centre, and is now helping deliver large-scale Passivhaus social housing schemes for Ealing Council

The government has set a target of building 1.5 million homes by the end of the parliament. It is also soon to announce the details of the Future Homes Standard – its much-awaited upgrade to building regulations. In this challenging context, the UK Passivhaus Trust has set itself an ambitious target to get to 10 per cent of all newbuild housing projects achieving the Passivhaus standard within the next 5-10 years.

Why Passivhaus?

Passivhaus is a game-changer, delivering buildings with both climate resilience and occupant wellbeing in mind. Passivhaus homes and buildings are healthy, comfortable, warm, peaceful, and with ultra-low energy bills. Post-monitoring data demonstrates that Passivhaus buildings perform as designed, with no ‘performance gap’.

The international low energy and comfort building standard is gaining significant traction with local authorities and across the public sector. Passivhaus is now a mainstream option in the UK, despite not yet having been adopted into national building standards or regulations. Clients across the UK, from social housing providers to large swimming pool operators, are recognising the benefits that Passivhaus brings, thanks to the quality assurance the standard delivers. Important new policy levers and funding changes have also helped act as ‘carrots and sticks’ to encourage local authorities and social housing providers to build better.

Passivhaus standard projects now account for around 1 per cent of all new homes under construction. The Passivhaus Trust is aiming to grow this from 1 per cent to 10 per cent of all projects by 2035, at the latest. We also want at least 50 per cent of the industry to understand the principles behind Passivhaus. So, how can we upscale?

UK building regulations & Passivhaus

The Government’s targeted 1.5 million new homes over the next five years are likely to be built to the soon-to-be-announced Future Homes Standard (FHS). The FHS is not expected to include any building fabric improvements, with more emphasis on the use of heat pumps and solar PVs. Although heat pumps and solar PV panels are a very good thing, they don’t address indoor air quality and occupant comfort. Nor do they tackle the urgent issue of helping the national grid cope with peak load, as most energy is generated in the summer when the energy is not needed for heating. The ideal scenario would be Passivhaus levels of fabric energy performance, alongside the heat pumps and solar panels. For this reason, the Passivhaus Trust strongly advocates, as a bare minimum, that the UK Government accepts that Passivhaus certified homes be considered ‘deemed to satisfy’ the Future Homes Standard.

Scotland is showing much stronger leadership on building standards, with the Scottish Government currently developing a Scottish Passivhaus equivalent policy for newbuild housing. The final details are still being determined, with a second consultation taking place during summer 2025. The signs are looking encouraging that the policy will include, at the very least, a requirement that homes to the Passivhaus standard be considered ‘deemed to satisfy’ current building standards.

Policy levers

In this patchy and evolving national policy picture, it is impressive that Passivhaus has made the headway that it has made to date. Some positive and effective policy levers have contributed to this growth.

In Scotland an impressive 60 per cent of new schools are currently targeting the Passivhaus standard, thanks to an innovative funding mechanism developed by the Scottish Futures Trust that encourages local authorities to adopt building standards that can guarantee good building performance. Projects receiving funding need to meet a very clear energy target and funding may be reduced based on any performance gap post-completion. Local authorities have been opting for the Passivhaus route to guarantee good building performance, and therefore de-risking the funding.

In Wales, funding conditions for social housing schemes permit the adoption of a ‘fabric first’ alternative to EPC A, which draws on the Passivhaus methodology. The recently launched ‘Tai ar y Cyd’ Pattern Book, backed by 23 Welsh social housing providers, and supported by the Welsh Government, includes Passivhaus as its suggested ‘enhanced’ standard.

Councils including Exeter, Norwich, Glasgow, Herefordshire, Salford, Edinburgh, York, and Midlothian, have adopted ambitious Passivhaus programmes for social housing and public building projects. London is becoming a Passivhaus hotspot, where councils are forging ahead with 1000s of Passivhaus social homes in the pipeline, thanks to the higher specifications of the London Plan.

Local authorities, including Cornwall, Bath & NE Somerset, and Central Lincolnshire, have developed local plans that call on developers to go beyond building regulations, often drawing on the Passivhaus methodology. There are also more similarly ambitious Local Plans in the pipeline, which seek to challenge the recent Written Ministerial Statement 2023, which has created confusion on the ability of local authorities to set sustainability standards above and beyond national regulations.

Housebuilder/developer support

The recent commitments made by major UK and Irish housebuilders to delivering Passivhaus homes are perhaps the most encouraging development of all. Irish housebuilder Cairn has recently adopted the Passivhaus standard for a 598-apartment project in Dublin. Barratt has announced a landmark move to adopt Passivhaus at scale, with all Barratt’s London residential schemes to be built to meet the Passivhaus standard. In Salford, MUSE is building its second Passivhaus apartment block with backing from the English Cities Fund, a partnership with Homes England and Legal & General.

Overcoming barriers

Local authorities and social housing providers tend to be risk-averse, which can be a barrier to getting Passivhaus projects approved. Initial projects are often steep learning curves, but once that is overcome, you can be bolder. Visiting and learning from other Passivhaus projects all help build client confidence.

There are still a lot of myth-busting about Passivhaus costs needed. Passivhaus Trust research shows an approximate cost uplift of only 4-8 per cent. My own experience has shown that if you’re working with an experienced Passivhaus designer who understands building physics and form factor and orientation, it is possible to drive down the cost to little or no additional premium. One of the Passivhaus apartment building projects I worked on for Exeter City Council came in 4 per cent cheaper than building regulation equivalents.

Supporting clients & upskilling the industry

As part of the Passivhaus Trust’s efforts to support this growth to 10 per cent of the housing market, it is offering expanded training in universities and colleges and a new Passivhaus Learning Hub to help create a skilled and experienced supply chain of certified designers/ consultants and contractors. It continues to showcase Passivhaus exemplar projects through case studies, a projects map and Passivhaus Open Days.

An exciting new initiative is online Passivhaus Client Clubs to guide the current and next wave of social housing clients through their decision-making journey. The Passivhaus Client Clubs are designed to help overcome common barriers and obstacles and help provide the evidence needed to bring stakeholders on board. Each online Client Club offers tailored support, a safe space for client discussions, and a chance to share best practice and learn from others who have been through the process. The next online session is on cost optimisation and is free for social housing providers.

A 10 per cent Passivhaus target is ambitious, but with increased policy support, greater industry awareness, and more clients recognising the benefits of Passivhaus, it is realisable. Join us!

Passivhaus Trust

Passivhaus Social Housing Client Clubs