🌍 Future Obligation: The Net Zero Challenge

Tuesday 19th October 2021

The Net Zero Strategy – Today’s Cost Hurdle is Tomorrow’s Compliance Reality

The UK government published its official Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener on October 19, 2021, outlining the policies needed across all sectors, including the built environment, to meet the 2050 target. A core implication for residential construction was the inevitable tightening of Building Regulations (Part L) and the future ban on gas boilers.

This is the big picture that overshadowed all the short-term crises. While clients were worried about the price of plasterboard (Headline 2) and the cost of a roofer (Headline 3), we at Robbins Construction were focused on the future implications of this strategy:

The Part L Shift (The Start of the Road): The Net Zero Strategy meant we had to adapt immediately. Stricter thermal efficiency standards were coming, meaning more complex wall build-ups, better insulation, and the mandatory move to air-source heat pumps or other low-carbon heating for new builds. This increased the technical specification and material costs of every project we quoted for the future.

The Retrofit Challenge: The UK has one of the oldest housing stocks in Europe. To hit Net Zero, the focus must shift heavily to retrofitting existing homes—improving insulation, ventilation, and heating systems. This will define the RMI sector for the next 20 years, demanding a completely new set of skills and certifications (e.g., PAS 2035).

Our Opinion: We support the Net Zero goal, but the pace and scale of change required a clearer roadmap and more targeted grants, especially for homeowners. The industry needed more than just a strategy; it needed a stable regulatory environment and a massive, accessible funding mechanism to train the workforce in these new energy-efficient techniques.

Debate Point: To meet Net Zero, should the government have mandated and subsidised a national skills programme (akin to the Stamp Duty Holiday in urgency) specifically for retrofit installers and heat pump engineers during 2022, rather than waiting for the private sector to adapt?