Future Homes Standard: 'zero carbon ready,' not zero carbon

The Future Homes and Buildings Standard is enacted for England by The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/335), made on 23 March 2026 and coming into force for non-higher-risk building work on 24 March 2027, with equivalent higher-risk-building provisions from 24 September 2027.

It amends the Building Regulations 2010, updating Part L — renamed from 'Conservation of fuel and power' to 'Energy and greenhouse gas emissions' — and Part F.

Building Regulations are devolved, so this instrument applies to England only; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have separate regimes and timetables.

No.

The Standard requires new homes to produce at least 75% less operational carbon than a home built to 2013 energy-efficiency standards, and to be 'zero carbon ready' — meaning no further building work is needed for a home to become zero carbon as the electricity grid decarbonises. 'Zero carbon ready' is a materially weaker claim than 'zero carbon' or 'net zero'.

The reduction is delivered chiefly through low-carbon heating such as heat pumps, high fabric efficiency and on-site renewable generation.

Not exactly.

SI 2026/335 introduces a functional requirement that a system for on-site renewable electricity generation be installed on, or within the curtilage of, every newly erected building that is or contains one or more dwellings.

It is technology-neutral ('renewable electricity generation') and drafted as a functional requirement — there is no fixed kilowatt figure or panel count, and adequacy is judged against the building's design and surroundings.

Exemptions apply, notably for some higher-risk buildings (including many flats) and where generation is technically infeasible.

Government messaging refers to 'the majority' of new homes, not all.

No — not at national level as of September 2026.

The Future Homes Standard and Part L 2026 regulate operational carbon only.

There is currently no mandatory legal requirement in England to assess or limit the embodied or whole-life carbon of buildings. 'Part Z' is an industry-drafted proposal for a new part of the Building Regulations that would make whole-life carbon assessment mandatory for larger projects and later introduce limits on upfront embodied carbon — but it is a proposal awaiting Government adoption, not law, and has not been laid as a statutory instrument.

Embodied-carbon assessment happens voluntarily, under professional standards, or under local planning conditions such as the GLA London Plan.

PAS 2080:2023 is BSI's publicly available specification for managing whole-life carbon in buildings and infrastructure.

Its second edition, effective 31 March 2023, superseded and withdrew PAS 2080:2016 (which covered infrastructure only) and expanded scope to the whole built environment.

It is a voluntary specification — not a statutory instrument and not a British Standard.

Adoption is contractual or industry-led, often required by clients such as major infrastructure programmes, rather than by law.

It should never be described as a regulation.

The RICS 'Whole life carbon assessment for the built environment' 2nd edition became mandatory for RICS members from 1 July 2024, and is the UK's de facto methodology for whole-life and embodied carbon assessment.

From that date, RICS members globally must follow the standard for all relevant project phases and types, recording any deviations.

It is a professional standard binding on RICS members as a professional obligation — it is not legislation and does not itself require any developer to assess or cap embodied carbon.