Concrete decisions - pay now or pay later

Lower-carbon and climate-resilient homes can also improve affordability over time, provided that the upfront costs are shared fairly across the housing value chain.

• Buildings account for more than a fifth of UK greenhouse-gas emissions and almost 40% globally, while 80% of the buildings that will be used in 2050 already exist.
• Nearly nine in ten new homes in England are rated EPC A or B, but the Future Homes Standard from March 2027 will require at least 75% lower emissions than homes built to 2013 standards; the Government estimates an added cost of more than £4,000 per average new home.
• Embodied carbon is becoming the main construction challenge as operational efficiency improves: concrete represents almost two-fifths of the materials in a typical home, and cement clinker accounts for more than half of cement’s emissions.
• Retrofitting is not always the lowest-carbon option: repurposing a 1980s London office block cut embodied carbon by 21% and created 20 social-rent homes, student housing and a community kitchen.
• Climate adaptation is urgent, with potential flood exposure reaching 2.6 million homes within 20 years and around 20% of English homes already experiencing overheating; Barratt Redrow estimates that adapting designs to hotter summers could add up to £5m in build costs.
• Affordability constrains the transition: UK house prices are roughly eight times average earnings, private renters in England are almost three times as likely to be fuel-poor as owner-occupiers, while an EPC A or B home costs about £420 less per year to run than a D-rated home.

Takeaway: Housebuilders, suppliers, lenders and policymakers should design efficiency, resilience and affordability together rather than treat them as competing goals, although achieving this at scale depends on fairly distributing upfront costs and sustaining support for buyers and affordable-housing providers.