General Election 2024: Get Britain building better

New build homes 

Retrofit homes

Conservative: Build more houses in the right places

Commitment to deliver 1.6 million homes in England through the next Parliament.

We will invest £6 billion in energy efficiency over the next three years to make around a million homes warmer. And we will fund an energy efficiency voucher scheme, open to every household in England, to support the installation of energy efficiency measures and solar panels, helping families lower their bills. 

Green Party: Providing fairer, greener homes

Manifesto June 2024: Long version

Commitment to deliver 150,000 new social homes a year.

Elected Greens will campaign to change building regulations so all new homes meet Passivhaus or equivalent standards and to require house builders to include solar panels and low carbon heating systems such as heat pumps for all new homes.

Supplementary evidence (supplied to Friends of the Earth/Greenpeace June 2024)

We fully back the implementation of the Future Homes Standard from 2025. Moreover, the Green Party would go further by campaigning to change building regulations so all new homes meet Passivhaus or equivalent standards ... These regulations need to be introduced as soon as possible in order ensure that new homes are future-proofed and do not require retrofitting to support the UK’s climate objectives.

Elected Greens will push for a local-authority-led, street-by-street retrofit programme to insulate our homes, provide clean heat and start to adapt our buildings to more extreme climate conditions. This would mean investment of:

• £29bn over the next five years to insulate homes to an EPC B standard or above as part of a ten-year programme.
• £4bn over the next five years to insulate other buildings to a high standard
• £9bn over the next five years for low-carbon heating systems (e.g. heat pumps) for homes and other buildings

Labour: Get Britain building again

Get Britain building again

Commitment to deliver 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament.

Labour wants exemplary development to be the norm not the exception. We will take steps to ensure we are building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and creating places that increase climate resilience and promote nature recovery. 

Supplementary evidence (supplied to Friends of the Earth/ Greenpeace, June 2024). 

We have previously stated that new houses will need to at least confirm to the Future Homes Standard. This is still our position.

Warm homes plan

• Labour will invest an extra £6.6 billion over the next parliament, doubling the existing planned government investment, to upgrade five million homes to cut bills for families.
• The Warm Homes Plan will offer grants and low interest loans to support investment in insulation and other improvements such as solar panels, batteries and low carbon heating to cut bills. We will partner with combined authorities, local and devolved governments, to roll out this plan.
• Labour will also work with the private sector, including banks and building societies, to provide further private finance to accelerate home upgrades and low carbon heating.
• We will ensure homes in the private rented sector meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030, saving renters hundreds of pounds per year. 

Liberal Democrats: For a fair deal

Commitment to deliver 380,00 new homes a year across the UK, including 150,000 social homes a year.

Immediately requiring all new homes and non-domestic buildings to be built to a zero-carbon standard, including being fitted with solar panels, and progressively increasing standards as technology improves.

• We will cut emissions and bills with an emergency Home Energy Upgrade programme.

• Make homes warmer and cheaper to heat with a ten-year emergency upgrade programme, starting with free insulation and heat pumps for those on low incomes, and ensure that all new homes are zero-carbon.

• Launching an emergency Home Energy Upgrade programme, with free insulation and heat pumps for low-income households and a central role for local authorities in delivering this programme. Reintroducing requirements for landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties to EPC C or above by 2028. 

• Introducing a new subsidised Energy-Saving Homes scheme, with pilots to find the most effective combination of tax incentives, loans and grants, together with advice and support.