The deadline for responding to the three government consultations on The Future Homes and Buildings Standards, the Home Energy Model: Future Homes Standard assessment, and the Home Energy Model has been extended to Wednesday 27^th March.

This extension is due to an issue with the consultation version of the Home Energy Model that informs responses to the Future Homes and Buildings Standards consultation.

The three consultations referenced were released in December 2023, with an initial response deadline of Wednesday 6^th March 2024. However, following an announcement from the government, this deadline has now been extended by three weeks, to Wednesday 27^th March 2024.

Why has the deadline been extended?

The government states that the deadline has been extended due to an issue with the consultation version of the Home Energy Model, which was affecting the modelled solar PV yield if solar panels were not facing south.

Whilst this issue is regarded as relatively minor, the government states that it could have affected whether designs pass or fail the Future Homes Standards notional building specification in marginal cases, which would potentially impact any comparison of Option 1 versus Option 2.

For this reason and to ensure that everyone has time to judge whether this issue will affect their response to the consultations, the government has taken the decision to grant an extension.

Has the issue been fixed?

The government has confirmed that a short-term fix has now been implemented to make sure that modelling now carried out in the Home Energy Model: Future Homes Standard assessment consultation tool more accurately supports responses to the Future Homes and Buildings Standards consultation.

A longer-term fix is also being developed and will be in place before the Future Homes Standard is implemented in 2025.

How can you update your response?

If you have already responded to the consultations and would like to update your response, the government has outlined the following options:

For the Future Homes and Buildings Standard consultation, you can update your response as follows:

1. Submit a new Citizen Space response, noting in your answer to Q6 that this is a replacement response.
2. If your original response was an email response, email futurehomesandbuildingsstandards@levellingup.gov.uk with the subject line ‘Updated Response’, giving your update and, if possible, attaching your original email response.

For the Home Energy Model and Home Energy Model: Future Homes Standard assessment consultations, new responses can be submitted via the Citizen Space survey or specific updates to previous responses can be emailed to homeenergymodel@energysecurity.gov.uk.

To view the government consultations, please use the following links:

The Future Homes and Buildings Standards: 2023 consultation

Home Energy Model: Future Homes Standard assessment

Home Energy Model: replacement for the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP)

Elmhurst Consultation Responses:

Elmhurst has created draft responses to the three government consultations referenced and encourage all members to review and submit their feedback.

You can view the draft responses by clicking on the images below and submit your feedback using our feedback form.