By Helen Raymond, senior sustainable design architect, The Concrete Centre
Warm homes are essential for health, wellbeing and the move away from fossil fuels, which is vital for the planet and energy security. They also help us to reduce energy demand and usage, tackle heating bills and provide us with comfortable places to live. We therefore welcome the publication of the government’s Warm Homes Plan, which aims to upgrade five million homes through retrofit schemes and lift up to a million families out of fuel poverty by 2030.
In our changing climate, it is also encouraging that the government has recognised the risk that overheating poses to our health and wellbeing and acknowledged the need for homes that are comfortable all year round. This means properties that are warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and resilient to extreme weather events.
The Warm Homes Plan has been billed as the ‘biggest home upgrade plan in British history’ and while retrofitting is one part of the puzzle, we mustn’t overlook the need for new build homes to deliver on this mission too. The latter calls for a greater consideration of materials specification to ensure the next generation of homes can avoid fuel poverty and handle shifting climate conditions.
It will also require a shift in thinking that goes beyond minimum building standards, as well as collaboration between local authorities, government and housebuilders to align housing policies and standards with climate resilience.
Concrete masonry construction, most commonly in the form of brick and block cavity walls, can provide the resilience needed in new homes, to reduce the need for large-scale retrofit projects in the future.
Keeping temperatures stable
We welcome the intention outlined in the Warm Homes Plan to prioritise ‘low-cost, low-regret’ passive cooling measures, such as cooler building materials, for social housing and schemes targeting lower income households.
Passive cooling – which uses a building’s design to maintain a comfortable temperature without relying on mechanical or electrical devices – is a reliable and robust strategy that will help to limit the use of costly mechanical cooling and alleviate summer fuel poverty for the households that need it most.
With adequate ventilation, thermal mass is a recognised means of passive cooling, helping to regulate indoor temperatures by absorbing the heat during the day and releasing it at night. This supports healthier, more comfortable homes, lower consumer bills and reduced pressure on the energy network.
Although the Warm Homes Plan doesn’t set out a strategy for using building materials to keep homes warm, concrete’s thermal mass can also help to take full advantage of solar gain in cooler seasons. In well-insulated homes, this can lower the demand on the heating system and reduce energy use and carbon emissions.
There is a lesson here for new build, too. As housebuilders gear up to deliver the government’s housing targets, specifying building materials that help to keep homes warm in the summer and cool in the winter will limit the need to retrofit the next generation of homes.
Protecting against flooding and wildfires
Despite including sensible measures to ensure that homes remain a comfortable temperature, the Warm Homes Plan fails to give sufficient attention to wider climate resilience issues.
The UK Green Building Council’s UK Climate Resilience Roadmap (2025) highlights five major issues for the buildings of the future, which include flooding, storms and wildfires. If we truly want to futureproof our housing stock, climate resilience should be a key consideration for all retrofit and new build schemes, helping to protect people and property and embed climate resilience into the very ‘bones’ of our homes.
As the UK begins to experience the effects of extreme weather events first hand, the British public is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of material choices that protect their homes from flooding and fire.
Last year, UK Concrete commissioned independent research of 5,000 homeowners, private and social renters to assess and understand attitudes to homes, how they are built and what they value in them.
87 percent of respondents said having a home constructed from fire-resistant materials was important, while 90 per cent rate materials that protect against water ingress as important.
Concrete is resilient to water ingress and doesn’t rot, rust or burn, making it an ideal choice for protecting homes against the mounting challenges posed by flooding and wildfires.
As the threat of extreme weather events in the UK continues to grow, the materials used to build our homes are more important than ever for safeguarding against climate risks. Using concrete and masonry will enable us to create homes that are not only warm, but comfortable, safe and desirable for many years to come.