The National Federation of Builders (NFB) agrees with others in the industry, that a retrofitting and future homes revolution is needed. However, it claims that without industry working together, we cannot achieve it.
Nothing displays this lack of collaboration better than a recent piece by the BBC, titled, Two Thirds of UK Homes ‘fail on energy efficiency targets’. Half of the organisations mentioned in the informative BBC article were contacted by the NFB about working together on a new standard and the highlighted development of passivhaus homes, Goldsmith Street, was built by a federation member.
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the NFB, said: “Industry needs to work together to ensure we have the mechanisms, knowledge and expertise to achieve change. That’s why we have previously identified some of the opportunities and barriers that councils face, not just in funding retrofit but supporting homeowners to get work done.”
“We need a call to arms led by the Government and industry. By bringing together technical experts to identify opportunities, decision makers like councils to enable change, and builders, like members of the NFB to complete the work, we can achieve an energy efficiency revolution in housing.”
The NFB has started some of this work already and previously released a piece titled, ‘The UK requires a retrofitting revolution’, which identifies some of the barriers and solutions.
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Housing and planning at the House Builders Association (HBA), said: “It’s time we stopped doing things in isolation and worked together. That’s always been our ambition and we hope our call to arms can ensure greater collaboration. This is a huge climate emergency and economic opportunity for the UK and we cannot miss it.”
The NFB comments echo the call from the recently relaunched Get Britain Building campaign.
