Shadow chancellor’s deregulation pledge leaves housebuilders and the glazing supply chain without a target, a year before the 2027 deadline.
The Conservatives would abolish the Future Homes Standard outright, the party confirmed at its Birmingham conference this week. It has not said what fabric or energy standard, if any, would replace it.
Andrew Griffith, the shadow chancellor, used his main speech at the conference to pledge to scrap the standard and the low-carbon heating requirement for new homes, both due to take effect next year. He called them part of the party’s “most ambitious deregulation project in a generation”. Under the same package, Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy would merge into a single developer charge, and stamp duty would go. The party says the measures would cut up to £50,000 from the cost of a new home in England and Wales.
Katie Lam, the shadow housing secretary, repeated the pledge on Tuesday. She also said the Renters’ Rights Act has “got to go”, but the party later said that was not official policy.
According to BBC Verify, the Conservatives have not published their full workings, and their total is slightly above Home Builders Federation estimates. The HBF says regulation and taxes have added £42,000–£76,000 to each home since 2020, including about £10,200 for the Future Homes Standard. Experts quoted by BBC Verify warned that schools and infrastructure would still need paying for, and that dropping the standard would raise householders’ energy bills over time.
Industry reaction has been cool. Victoria Hills of the CIOB wants a full review with industry experts before any standard is cut. Brian Berry of the FMB said removing rules without a workable replacement creates uncertainty. Propertymark said scrapping the standard “needs careful consideration”.
For glazing, this is an opposition pledge, not policy, and the standard is still due in 2027. The risk for systems houses and fabricators is that developers use the political uncertainty to resist specification costs or delay upgrades. No glazing trade body, including the GGF, had responded at the time of writing.
