The Scottish Government has outlined plans to update Technical Handbook Section 6 to scrap SAP and further tighten fabric performance standards. They're calling it a 'PassivHaus equivalent standard'. Specific details and timeframes will be confirmed later this year, with the final ‘Go Live’ date already confirmed as 31st March 2028.

A newly written National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) for England has been published and is open for public consultation. The draft text aims to stop local authorities from setting their own emissions targets, and recommends councils look more favourably on developments that take a proactive approach to the net zero transition.

What is V2L, why is it useful in a powercut, and how can you use it to annoy your neighbours? I made a little video this week to show how your EV car can double-up as a back-up generator for running essential appliances when the lights go out.

Housebuilding in London is way off target. Could relaxing red tape and removing additional costs, such as Community Infrastructure Levy payments, entice builders back into the Capital?

England's planning laws currently include 10 Statutory Consultees. Depending on what you're proposing to build, and where you're proposing to build it, these bodies have a legal obligation to review your proposals and comment on them.

The first draft of HNTAS has been published... Essential reading for all insomniacs and designers of Heat Networks and Communal Heating in the UK.

As the UK hurtles towards net zero and we cut our reliance on fossil fuels, heat pumps are set to become the de facto heating system for the vast majority of building projects. But what happens when heat pumps aren't suitable?

We had our EV car charger installed today by Octopus Energy. Based on their Intelligent tariff, we can fully charge the Banana Hammock for less than a fiver.

When a SAP calculation spits out unexpected results, the assessor can look through the worksheets and, 99% of the time, they can find the reason and fix it. The Home Energy Model doesn’t produce simple worksheets that assessors can scrutinise, and it doesn’t have a single methodology you can thumb through. So how will we troubleshoot in HEM?

The Government's standard response about the release of the Future Homes Standard has changed recently from 'Autumn 2025' to 'in the coming months'.

This is only going to be exciting for us high-level Home Energy Model nerds, but new Home Energy Model Technical Documents have just been published on the DESNZ website. These docs explain the logic behind HEM.. a bit like the SAP methodology manual.

EPC certificates in Scotland will be changing from October 2026. There will still be an A-G rating. But to spice things up, we’ll get three of them, each considering different factors. The main metric will be a measurement of Fabric Performance. The better your house is at keeping the heat in, the better rating it will achieve. The Heat Retention Rating (HRR) is expected to award A ratings to the most insulated homes in Scotland (<30 kWh/m2 of heat loss), and B ratings <90.

The Scottish Government has published what EPC Reform is going to look like. SAP assessors are advised to strap in… it could be a bumpy ride! Every EPC in Scotland will need to be redone, using a more complicated assessment tool that isn’t ready yet, with a nation of re-trained SAP assessors attending training courses that haven’t been written yet, signing up to 'new enhanced accreditation scheme requirements' that don’t exist yet.

The Zero Bills scheme encourages housebuilders to invest in large PV arrays, heat pumps and batteries. If all the right boxes are ticked, the homeowner won't pay a penny in energy bills for 10 years! Zero Bills is also being used on some renovation projects, where the house can suitably be upgraded with ASHP and PV.

When the FHS consultation was released in December 2023, there were two other consultations hidden in its shadow. This week's publication is the official response to one of those lesser-spotted policy proposals. In a nutshell, it confirms SAP is definitely going to be retired. HEM will take over as the method for complying with Approved Document Part L. It will also be used for calculating Energy Performance Certificates.

DEFRA has published a consultation into changing water efficiency targets in Approved Document Part G in England. There's also a Call For Evidence discussing further changes in the near future. The consultation is open until December 16th 2025.

It was good to see Elmhurst's Stuart Fairlie in this article, raising the issue of outdated methodology that currently drives our EPC ratings. It's after a chap installed a heat pump and PV in his house, and was given a worse Energy Performance Certificate for his troubles.

New regulatory standards for all heat networks and shared heating schemes is to be rolled out across the UK. The Heat Network Technical Assurance Scheme (HNTAS) will put in place strict requirements around the design, maintenance and data collecting of all networks, introduce accreditation schemes for designers and hopefully win more people over to the advantages of living with community heating.