It's all very well encouraging the building of new homes but having to retrofit them with energy-saving features is very expensive. This is clearly illustrated by UK new-builds over the last 7 years. The plan to require new-builds to be equipped with energy pumps; solar panels and high grade insulation, was abandoned in 2016. This was after builders lobbied government, claiming these requirements would make their houses too expensive to sell. Fitting those energy-efficiency changes is estimated to cost between £5000 and £8500. The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit believe abandoning the energy-saving changes collectively costs new-builds £5bn per annum. That's around £1000 per annum on the annual energy bills for each new home (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/16/energy-bills-for-uk-new-build-homes-higher-due-to-poor-construction-standards-analysis-shows). Dropping the energy-saving requirements for UK new builds was clearly false economy. Government seems to have ignored the fact that UK house-builders have always routinely driven up the cost of houses, by delaying building on land with planning permission. They often 'bank' such land and sell it to each other at inflated prices.
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