High energy bills in new builds seems counterintuitive, but people living in newly built homes are having to pay energy bills that are nearly £1,000 a year higher than needs be because of the poor standards the dwellings have been constructed to, according to a recent think tank report.
The Guardian reports that residents of homes built in the past seven years have paid about £5bn more in energy bills than they would have if relating new carbon regulations had not been scrapped in 2015. Although builders have long claimed building to such standards would be too expensive, the report points out that equipping new homes with solar panels, heat pumps and high-grade insulation at the time of construction would have cost between £5,000 and £8,500 for most of the period since 2016.
Most new homes have been built to lower standards of insulation, and with gas boilers instead of heat pumps. About six out of 10 new homes are still being built without solar panels. While the government has recently confirmed new regulations are likely to require renewable energy generation to be incorporated in most new homes, this is likely to mean solar panels in most cases.
Jess Ralston, energy analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, that produced the analysis, said: “Governments giving in to
housebuilder lobbying have left Britain with more poor-quality homes, more dependent on foreign gas, and more exposed to the highly volatile gas markets during the ongoing energy crisis. Unless we lower our gas demand by building better, warmer homes that run on heat pumps then we’ll just have to import more from abroad, as the North Sea continues its decades-long decline in output.”
The government now plans to publish revised regulations later this year which will apply to the 1.5m homes by 2029 Labour promised in its election manifesto and hopefully an end to high bills for new builds.
If you are thinking about retrofitting your home, check out our solar survey to see how you might benefit from installing solar panels on our energy page, as well as how to benefit from locally produced electricity through Settle Local Energy Club.