Commitment to Greener Homes
Hopkins Homes has become a member of The Future Homes Hub, underlining the company’s ever-growing commitment to meeting the climate and environmental challenges faced by the housebuilding sector.
The Future Homes Hub is a not-for-profit independent organisation bringing together 40 of the largest companies in the homebuilding sector with the wider circle of supply chain, infrastructure, finance and government organisations. The Hub’s purpose is to facilitate collaboration across the sector to meet climate and environmental targets whilst building high-quality homes.
Lee Barnard, Group Managing Director of Hopkins Homes, said “I’m really pleased to be joining an industry body focused on collaboration towards a future where all new build homes will be Zero Carbon ready and sustainable.”
“At Hopkins Homes, we’re already making great strides towards this with our ‘Fabric First’ approach to house building, but there’s no denying that our industry is facing its biggest challenge and we want to be part of the conversation and the solution” he added.
From June 2025, the Government’s ‘Future Homes Standard’ will come into force, requiring CO2 emissions produced by new homes to be 75-80% lower than those built to current standards. Homes will need to be ‘zero carbon ready’, with no retrofit work required to benefit from the decarbonisation of the electricity grid and the electrification of heating.
Simon Bryan, Group Development Director at Hopkins Homes said “Energy efficiency has been at the top of our agenda for several years now and as such, we are ahead of the current industry standards. However, as new technologies emerge, we need to consider all our options, which is why the Future Homes Hub is so important.”
By July 2023, the housebuilding industry needs to have reduced its carbon footprint by 31%, increasing to 75% by July 2025.
“At Hopkins Homes, we are already achieving up to a 50% reduction in carbon footprint on homes with a gas boiler and up to a 60% reduction on homes installed with an air source heat pump*. From July 2023, we will be installing air source heat pumps and ground floor underfloor heating, as well as a provision for car charging as standard on the majority of all newly commenced homes.” added Simon Bryan.
A sustainable future for the UK housing sector remains high on the agenda for Hopkins Homes and other industry leaders.
*Based upon assessment of house types 1550 and 882 at Wickham Market.
