UK news - passivehouseplus.ie

A newly published landmark study has said thirteen UK areas face severe climate risks as schools brace for ten-week heatwaves.

The winners of the inaugural Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards were announced in London on 25 June, celebrating the Sustainable Development Foundation's 20th anniversary.

Leading developer Barratt London has announced plans for its ‘Lo-E’ Homes programme, which will deliver sustainable new homes at scale across the British capital and exceed passive house standards.

Certified green homes are becoming mainstream across Europe – boosted by collaboration from experts in green building and finance. Smarter Finance for EU (Smarter4EU), a pan-European initiative dedicated to the creation of a mainstream European green housing market, announced a range of new initiatives at the “Banking on Green Homes" event in Madrid, on 28 May.

The 2025 UK and Ireland Passivhaus Conference, themed Climate Emergency: The Passivhaus Solution, is set to bring together hundreds of sustainable building professionals in Belfast this October.

As global temperatures soar, an Irish organisation is bringing experts together this month for a summit on the future of sustainable construction.

Help is at hand for European financial institutions scrambling to train staff in sustainable housing finance as regulatory pressure intensifies and customer demand for green mortgages accelerates across the continent.

Reddy is the first person from Ireland to hold the role of President of ICT, which has a term of two years, and follows his term of Vice President of the organisation since 2023.

A survey of 1,500 UK homeowners by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) – a cross-party think tank – has revealed government failure to make people feel confident in taking steps for the net zero transition, jeopardising its success.

Wales’s devolved government has moved forward with plans to standardise sustainable, timber-based affordable homes in the country with the publication of a new pattern book.

Certified passive house to be alternative means of compliance to proposed Scottish passive house equivalent.

The Smarter Finance for EU consortium, which is aiming to unlock €100bn worth of green homes across Europe, announced the launch of a European centre of excellence to promote green home certification and investment across Europe at the Irish Green Building Council’s annual residential conference in Dublin.

Canadian green building writer and architect Lloyd Alter has published a book to explain the importance of embodied carbon in simple terms.

There may never be a better time for companies to upskill their staff in passive house, Enerphit and net zero construction – thanks to new 70 per cent grants.

A pilot version of the UK’s first cross-industry standard for net zero carbon-aligned buildings has been launched.

Europe’s burgeoning green homes market is a multi-trillion euros opportunity – but lenders must be wary of facilitating greenwashing, a pan-European consortium has warned.

Gas cooking is killing 40,000 European people a year in Europe, a major new study has revealed, with an average of almost two years taken off their life in the EU and United Kingdom due to exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emitted during gas cooking.The countries with the highest burden were Italy, Poland, Romania, France and the UK.

Multi-award winning Belfast-based property developer, Fraser Millar, has launched Northern Ireland’s second large-scale residential passive house development – a 74-unit scheme of detached and semi-detached homes at a total project value of £30m.

Aidan Doyle has joined insulation manufacturer, Unilin Insulation, as General Manager for both the Ireland and UK businesses.

The en masse global shift to high performance buildings is essential to meeting the climate challenge and improving quality of life around the world, an international conference has heard.

Home buyers seeking sustainable luxury and energy income in a sought-after part of England have a rare opportunity with a newly launched passive house scheme in St Albans.

Patrick Harvie MSP, the Scottish government’s minister for zero carbon buildings, active travel and tenants' rights, was a keynote speaker at the UK Passivhaus Conference in Edinburgh on 17 October, and shared his vision for energy efficient and low carbon buildings in Scotland.

Delegates at the 2023 AECB Conference heard a wide range of speakers covering everything from guerrilla edible planting to peak oil to detailed discussions on whole life carbon calculation.

A new free-to-access training programme, Design Performance for Climate Action, provides architecture students across the UK with a solid foundation in climate-responsive building design – with passive house at its core.

Three leading sustainable building organisations have expressed disappointment with the government’s proposed Future Homes Standard, which went to consultation in December, along with proposals for non-domestic buildings.

The AECB 2023 Conference will focus on providing solutions required for building in an age of climate chaos and biodiversity collapse.

A pioneering co-housing scheme, a cube-shaped self build, a cork and polyester- insulated retrofit to a 1970s house, a glulam timber school, and a curved college building were the winners at the 2023 UK Passivhaus Awards.

The United Nations is pushing for a rapid drive to make the world’s buildings sustainable – aided by an international coalition centred in the Wexford town of Enniscorthy.

TrustMark defends scheme & says it creates a pathway to PAS 2035

Simon Jones reviews new book exploring the Grenfell tragedy.