Great opportunities and changes at the HBF Technical Conference

The industry has a “great opportunity” to create smart, comfortable homes “fit for the future”, Richard Lankshear, the Future Homes Hub’s programme director, said today (September 18).

Speaking at the Home Builders Federation’s Technical Conference in Birmingham, Lankshear gave an overview of the intense change housebuilders are experiencing under the net zero and environmental agenda.

He looked at how the Hub was responding as the industry’s collaborator to build the homes of the future, taking a long-term view on carbon, water, nature and other elements and keen to help set the industry’s own targets through agreed metrics.

He noted the new government’s keen focus on housebuilding and its phrase: “Making the norm, not the exception”.

The expectation on the industry was “not just about quality, but building strong, sustainable, low carbon developments. This fits nicely with the work the Hub is doing”.

Lankshear pointed to the Hub’s “manifesto” - its One Plan document published last year. “This is the challenge – we know we need to build more homes, but at the same time there is an existential crisis around climate change. We’ve also got an absolute nature crisis going on.” The UK was the least biodiverse country …