If you are planning a new build in England right now, the Future Homes Standard is the single most important regulatory change you need to understand. It was published in March 2026 and it fundamentally changes how new homes must be designed, heated, and powered.
The short version: gas boilers are out. Heat pumps are in. Solar panels go on the roof. Insulation gets significantly better. And the home you build will need to produce at least 75% less carbon than a home built to 2013 standards.
This is not a vague ambition. It is now law, with the detailed technical requirements set out in updated Approved Documents and coming fully into force on 24 March 2027. If you are building now or planning to start in the next 12 to 18 months, this affects your design, your specification, and your budget. This guide explains what has actually changed, what it means in practice, and what the transitional rules mean for your specific timeline. If you want to understand how these changes sit within the broader regulatory picture, our guide to building regulations for new builds in London covers the full framework.
What Is the Future Homes Standard?
The Future Homes Standard is a major overhaul of Part L of the Building Regulations, the section that governs energy efficiency and carbon emissions from new buildings. It was formally published on 24 March 2026 and comes into force on 24 March 2027. The full name is the Future Homes and Buildings Standard, and it covers both residential and non-domestic buildings, though this guide focuses on new homes. The official government documentation is available on gov.uk.
The headline requirement is a 75% reduction in carbon emissions compared to homes built to 2013 standards. That target is so demanding that no fossil fuel heating system can meet it. Gas boilers, oil boilers, and LPG systems are all effectively ruled out for new builds from the point full compliance kicks in.
The standard has been in the pipeline for years. There was an interim Part L update in 2021 that pushed homes to roughly 30% better than 2013 standards as a stepping stone. The 2026 update goes much further, and the industry has known it was coming. The main question for anyone building now is whether their project falls within the transitional arrangements or whether they need to comply in full from day one.
The Key Dates: What Applies When
The timeline is important and slightly confusing, so here it is set out clearly.
| Date | What Happens |
| 24 March 2026 | Future Homes Standard published. Approved Documents updated. Industry has 12 months to prepare. |
| 24 March 2027 | FHS comes into force for standard residential buildings. All new building notices, initial notices, and full plans applications submitted from this date must comply. |
| 24 March 2028 | End of transitional period. Projects that submitted building control applications before 24 March 2027 and started construction before this date can still build to Part L 2021. After this date, full FHS compliance is required for all new homes. |
| 24 September 2027 | FHS comes into force for higher-risk buildings (18 metres or seven storeys and above), reflecting the greater complexity of the Gateway process for tall buildings. |
The transitional rules apply to individual buildings, not to entire sites. Submitting an application for one plot on a development before 24 March 2027 does not protect other plots on the same site that are applied for later. Each building is assessed individually.
If you are planning to submit a building regulations application in early 2027, check the date carefully. An application submitted on 25 March 2027 must comply with the FHS. One submitted on 23 March 2027 can use the older standard, provided construction starts before 24 March 2028.
What Actually Changes Under the Future Homes Standard?
The FHS changes four things: how you heat the home, how you generate energy on site, how well the building fabric performs, and how ventilation is handled. Here is what each of those means in practice.
1. Heating: heat pumps replace gas boilers
This is the biggest change for most homeowners. Gas boilers cannot meet the carbon targets set by the FHS. From the point of full compliance, new homes must be heated by a low-carbon system. In practice, that means one of two things:
- Air source heat pump (ASHP): The most common solution for individual houses. A unit mounted outside the building extracts heat from the air and uses it to heat the home and hot water. Heat pumps are significantly more efficient than boilers in terms of the energy they deliver per unit of electricity consumed, but electricity costs roughly four times more per unit than gas, so the running cost advantage over a modern gas boiler is smaller than it sounds.
- Heat network connection: Where a district or communal heat network is available, connecting to it is an alternative to an individual heat pump. Heat networks are more common in urban areas and in larger developments. In London, some boroughs have existing networks, and new major developments are increasingly required to connect to or contribute to one.
An air source heat pump needs space outside the building for the external unit, adequate internal space for a hot water cylinder and air handling, and a properly sized low-temperature heating system. Heat pumps work best with underfloor heating or large radiators designed for lower flow temperatures. If you are designing a new build now, all of this needs to be in the brief from day one, not retrofitted at the end.
Heat pumps are not a drop-in replacement for a gas boiler. They need to be designed into the building from the start. The heating distribution system, cylinder size, electrical supply capacity, and external unit location all need to be resolved during design, not on site.
2. Solar panels: a mandatory requirement
The FHS introduces a new functional requirement, Requirement L3, for on-site renewable electricity generation. For most new homes, this means roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panels. The required coverage is panels equivalent to 40% of the dwelling’s ground floor area. On a typical three-bedroom house with a ground floor area of around 60m², that means approximately 24m² of solar panels on the roof. The NICEIC’s guidance on the solar requirement has a clear breakdown of how coverage is calculated.
There are exceptions. Higher-risk buildings above 18 metres are exempt from the solar requirement due to roof space limitations and installation complexity. Buildings connected to heat networks are also exempt. And where roof geometry, orientation, or shading genuinely prevents meeting the 40% target, alternative compliance routes are available, though these require documented technical justification.
What this means in practice is that your roof design now needs to accommodate a substantial array of solar panels. South-facing pitches are preferred. Roof lights, dormers, complex hip geometry, and features that reduce usable roof area all complicate compliance. Your architect needs to think about this during massing, not after the roof design has been finalised.
3. Building fabric: better insulation and airtightness
The FHS requires significantly improved performance from the building envelope compared to previous standards. Walls, floors, roofs, and windows all need to perform to tighter specifications.
| Building Element | Typical Pre-FHS Standard | FHS Requirement |
| External walls | U-value around 0.18 W/m²K | U-value 0.15 W/m²K or better |
| Roof | U-value around 0.13 W/m²K | U-value 0.11 W/m²K or better |
| Ground floor | U-value around 0.13 W/m²K | U-value 0.11 W/m²K or better |
| Windows and doors | U-value around 1.4 W/m²K | U-value 1.2 W/m²K or better |
| Airtightness | 5 m³/h/m² at 50Pa | Target 3 m³/h/m² at 50Pa or better |
In real terms, this means thicker insulation throughout, higher specification glazing, and more careful detailing of junctions and penetrations to reduce air leakage. These things cost more but also deliver a home that costs significantly less to run than older housing stock.
4. Ventilation: mechanical systems become standard
A more airtight home needs a proper ventilation strategy. Opening a window is not sufficient. The FHS expects most new homes to include mechanical ventilation, either decentralised mechanical extract ventilation (dMEV) in wet rooms, or a whole-house mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system.
MVHR is particularly effective in very airtight homes. It extracts stale air from bathrooms and kitchens, recovers the heat from that air before it leaves the building, and uses that recovered heat to warm incoming fresh air. A well-designed MVHR system reduces heating demand and maintains good indoor air quality. It also adds to the build cost and requires careful commissioning.
The ventilation design needs to be coordinated with the architectural design from the start. MVHR units need space, ductwork runs need to be planned, and penetrations through the airtight layer need to be managed carefully.
What Does the Future Homes Standard Add to Build Costs?
The government’s own Impact Assessment, published alongside the FHS in March 2026, estimates an additional build cost of approximately £4,350 per dwelling compared to building to Part L 2021 standards. That is a weighted average across all dwelling types. The breakdown is roughly as follows:
| Item | Approximate Additional Cost |
| Air source heat pump (vs gas boiler and cylinder) | £1,500 to £3,000 |
| Solar PV panels to 40% coverage | £3,000 to £6,000 depending on roof size and array size |
| Enhanced insulation across walls, roof, and floor | £800 to £2,000 |
| Improved glazing specification | £500 to £1,500 |
| MVHR or dMEV ventilation system | £1,500 to £4,000 for MVHR |
| Improved airtightness detailing and testing | £300 to £800 |
These are incremental costs over and above a standard pre-FHS new build. They do not represent the total cost of these items; they represent the extra cost compared to what you would have spent anyway. A larger, more complex house will sit at the higher end of these ranges.
The honest picture on running costs is more nuanced than some of the headlines suggest. An FHS-compliant home will use no gas and will not pay a gas standing charge, which is a real saving. It will also be much better insulated than older homes, which reduces heat loss and therefore heating demand. But electricity currently costs around four times more per unit than gas, which offsets some of the efficiency gain from heat pumps. The government expects the electricity-to-gas price ratio to narrow over the coming decade as the grid decarbonises, at which point the running cost advantage of FHS homes will become more pronounced.
What This Means for Your New Build Project Right Now
If you are at early design stage, here is what the FHS means for the decisions you are making now.
Your architect needs to design for heat pump and solar from the start
This is not a specification decision you make at the end of design. The heat pump external unit needs a location. The hot water cylinder needs space. The electrical consumer unit needs capacity for the heat pump circuit and the EV charging point. The roof needs to be oriented and detailed for the solar array. All of this needs to be in the brief before the first sketch plans are drawn.
Your mechanical engineer is now a key member of the design team
On a pre-FHS project, mechanical and electrical engineering was sometimes an afterthought. Under the FHS it is central. The heat pump sizing, the heating distribution design, the MVHR layout, the solar system specification, and the HEM energy modelling all require a properly briefed M and E engineer from the early stages of design.
The Home Energy Model replaces SAP
The FHS introduces a new energy calculation methodology called the Home Energy Model (HEM), which replaces the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) used previously. HEM is a more sophisticated tool that models energy use on a half-hourly basis rather than in simplified monthly averages. During the transitional period to March 2028, SAP 10.3 can still be used. After that, HEM becomes mandatory. Your energy assessor will need to be familiar with the new tool. The HEM Guide website has a clear technical breakdown of what has changed.
Conservation areas and listed buildings present a tension
Solar panels on a new build in a conservation area will attract planning scrutiny. The FHS requires them; the conservation area design guide may resist them. This is a live tension that planning officers are navigating on a case by case basis. In most situations, the requirement to comply with building regulations takes precedence, but your architect should raise this early with the local planning authority rather than assuming it will resolve itself.
The benefits are real, not just regulatory
It is easy to focus on the cost and complexity of FHS compliance. But the homes it produces are genuinely better. Lower energy bills than any home built before these standards. Better indoor air quality. Warmer, more comfortable rooms with less temperature variation. No exposure to gas price volatility. And a property that will be far easier to sell in a market where EPC ratings are increasingly scrutinised by buyers and lenders.
Green mortgages, which offer lower interest rates for homes with EPC A or B ratings, are already mainstream. An FHS-compliant home will achieve these ratings as standard. That is a commercial as well as an environmental benefit.
Building to the Future Homes Standard in London?
We build across all 33 London boroughs and are fully up to speed with the FHS requirements. If you are trying to work out what the standard means for your specific project, whether you fall within the transitional arrangements, or how to design a compliant home without overcomplicating the specification, talk to our team. We will give you a straight answer.
DEVELOPER NOTES
Internal links: /blog/building-regulations-new-builds-london, /contact
External links: gov.uk Future Homes Standard documentation, NICEIC FHS homeowner guide (niceic.com), HEM Guide (home-energy-model.co.uk)
Suggested meta description: The Future Homes Standard was published in March 2026 and comes into force in March 2027. No gas boilers, mandatory solar panels, heat pumps as standard. Here is what it actually means if you are building now.
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Frequently Asked Questions
When does the Future Homes Standard come into force?
The Future Homes Standard was published on 24 March 2026 and comes into force for standard residential buildings on 24 March 2027. There is then a 12-month transitional period running to 24 March 2028, during which projects that submitted building control applications before March 2027 can still build to the older Part L 2021 standard, provided construction starts before March 2028. For higher-risk buildings above 18 metres or seven storeys, the standard comes into force on 24 September 2027.
Are gas boilers banned under the Future Homes Standard?
Not banned in existing homes, but effectively ruled out for new builds. The FHS requires new homes to produce at least 75% less carbon than homes built to 2013 standards. No gas boiler system can meet that target. So while a gas boiler is not explicitly prohibited, it cannot deliver compliance, which means it cannot be used in a new build that needs to pass building regulations. From the point of full compliance, heat pumps or heat network connections are the expected heating solution for new homes in England.
Do I need solar panels on my new build?
Yes, in most cases. The FHS introduces a mandatory requirement for on-site renewable electricity generation. For most homes, this means solar panels covering an area equivalent to 40% of the ground floor area. There are exceptions for higher-risk buildings above 18 metres, for buildings connected to heat networks, and for cases where roof geometry or shading genuinely prevents meeting the coverage target. But for a typical London new build house, solar panels are now a standard part of the specification.
How much does the Future Homes Standard add to build costs?
The government’s own Impact Assessment estimates approximately £4,350 per dwelling in additional build costs compared to Part L 2021 standards. This covers the heat pump, solar panels, enhanced insulation, improved glazing, and mechanical ventilation. Larger or more complex homes will sit at the higher end. These are incremental costs over what you would have spent anyway, not the total cost of these items.
Does the Future Homes Standard apply to extensions and renovations?
The FHS is primarily aimed at new build dwellings. Extensions and renovations are subject to building regulations, but the specific FHS requirements for heat pumps and solar panels do not automatically apply to an extension on an existing home. However, if an extension or renovation is substantial enough to trigger a full energy assessment, the work may need to meet higher energy standards than before. Check with your architect and building control body for your specific situation.
What if my project is in a conservation area and solar panels are a problem?
This is a genuine tension and one that planning departments are actively working through. Building regulations require FHS compliance including solar panels; conservation area policies may resist visible panels on roofs. In practice, building regulations tend to take precedence where the two conflict, but your architect should raise this with the local planning authority at pre-application stage. There are also alternative compliance routes under the FHS where solar is genuinely impractical, though these require documented technical justification rather than a preference to avoid panels.
My project is already underway. Do I need to comply?
It depends when you submitted your building control application and when you started construction. If you submitted a building notice, initial notice, or full plans application before 24 March 2027, and your construction commences before 24 March 2028, you can build to the Part L 2021 standard rather than the FHS. If you are unsure which regime applies to your project, check with your building control body. The transitional arrangements apply to individual buildings, so the position may differ across plots on the
