The future homes standard, due to take effect, would have required all new homes to be built with solar panels, heat pumps, high-grade insulation and other low-carbon measures. Badenoch's proposal would remove those requirements, arguing that they add cost at a time when the UK needs to accelerate housebuilding.
However, the Guardian reports that the Tories have quoted construction costs of £30,000 per home for complying with the standard, while independent estimates put the cost at £5,000 to £8,000 at the point of building, a figure from 2024 when energy prices were lower. The savings for households are estimated at more than £1,300 a year on bills, a saving likely to be substantially higher now. Retrofitting homes after construction would cost more than £20,000.
Jan Rosenow, professor of climate and energy policy at the University of Oxford, said: "Every home constructed today that runs on fossil fuels is a liability for the occupants. It also results in investor uncertainty and disrupts the supply chain that has been gearing up for this. What we need is less political point scoring and more long-term clarity."
Simon McWhirter, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, said: "The housebuilding industry has spent years preparing for the introduction of the FHS, investing in skills, supply chains and new products. Reversing course would … risk slowing progress towards building the homes that people want and need."
The policy is part of a broader rollback of green commitments announced at the Conservative party conference, including plans to abolish the Environment Agency and Natural England, despite ongoing crises over sewage and farm pollution and dramatic declines in wildlife.
The UK needs approximately 6 million new homes, according to the Guardian report, and failing to equip them with efficient, low-carbon energy sources would lock in higher bills for occupants for decades.