A decade after the UK scrapped its Zero Carbon Homes policy, more than a million new homes are now heavily reliant on imported gas for heating, according to new analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).
The Zero Carbon Homes standard, set to be implemented in 2016, would have required new builds to meet higher energy efficiency standards and include low carbon heating and solar panels. However, the policy was scrapped in July 2015, following lobbying from major housebuilders.
Since then, over 1.3 million homes have been built with gas boilers, poorer insulation and no solar, resulting in significantly higher gas use. The ECIU estimates these homes are using 7.5 times more gas in 2025 than they would have if built under the scrapped standard—an amount equivalent to 20 LNG tankers or the annual heating demand of 1.6 million existing homes.
“We’ve had 10 years of building inefficient homes that leak heat from their walls and roofs while costing their occupants a fortune in gas bills over the course of the gas crisis,” said Jess Ralston, Energy Analyst at the ECIU. “This could have been avoided, as could importing more gas from abroad, if the Government of the day had stuck to its guns.”
The UK’s reliance on gas imports has risen sharply as North Sea output declines—from 7% of total supply in 2005 to 49% in 2024. While electricity has become more domestically generated thanks to renewables, heating remains a weak point.
Although the Future Homes Standard promises improved energy efficiency and clean heating, delays could see it take effect only in the late 2020s—leaving millions more homes built to outdated standards.
Million new homes reliant on foreign gas a decade after zero carbon policy scrapped appeared first on Energy Live News.