FHS consultation deadline extended

The deadline for the Future Homes Standard consultation has been extended to March 27.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has confirmed that the consultation deadline has been lengthened from March 6, following concerns raised by the Home Builders Federation and its members about the functionality of the Home Energy Model (HEM), the proposed replacement to the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP). Created in 1993, SAP measures the estimated energy performance of new homes.

Government has been consulting on the HEM at a “formative” stage before launching the first version alongside the FHS in 2025. This has allowed the industry to test the proposed new model. But HBF said housebuilders had found it was not possible to demonstrate compliance with the FHS using specifications for a range of house types under the consultation-stage HEM.

The formative version of the HEM has also revealed difficulties with available options for heat pumps and with the modelled solar PV yield for solar panels not facing south.

HBF said it swiftly alerted the industry's concerns to ministers and officials, including at a roundtable with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ (DLUHC) minister Baroness Penn.

But …