Scrapping the Zero Carbon Homes policy in 2015 left new build home using 7.5 times more foreign gas than if policy had been implemented, according to the ECIU.

The Zero Carbon Homes standard was scrapped on 10 July 2015 and would have seen new homes built to higher energy efficiency standards with low carbon heating and solar panels. Cutting the policy has resulted in new homes using up to 7.5 times more gas imports in 2025, compared to if it had been introduced, a new analysis has found.

There have been more than 1.3 million homes built since 2015, during which time there has been one minor uplift to energy performance standards for new builds, in 2021, with delays to the Future Homes Standard (the replacement for Zero Carbon Homes) meaning that homes may not be built to higher standards until the late 2020s.

Jess Ralston, Energy Analyst at the ECIU said: “We’ve had 10 years of building inefficient homes that leak heat from their walls and roofs while costing their occupants a fortune in gas bills over the course of the gas crisis. The question now is will the current Government delay further.”

While the Future Homes Standard will see new homes fitted with high levels of energy efficiency, solar panels and low carbon heating such as heat pumps, there are concerns that delays to the process may result in a lack of new homes being built to the standard until the late 2020s. This would mean over a decade of new homes being built to lower standards, and result in more gas imports from abroad as the North Sea continues its inevitable decline.

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