Unlocking Passivhaus with policy

By Sarah Lewis, Policy & Research Director, Passivhaus Trust

Passivhaus is beginning to go mainstream in the UK and there are a number of policy ‘carrots and sticks’ helping accelerate uptake in the UK.

Scottish Passivhaus Equivalent

The Scottish Government has been developing a ‘Scottish Passivhaus Equivalent’ policy over the last few years. This is currently out to stage 2 consultation. One of the most positive outcomes of this process has been the proposal that Passivhaus be considered ‘deemed to satisfy’ Scottish building standards. This will cut down on red tape for developers and help deliver outstanding building performance. The proposals for the ‘equivalent’ standard are also very positive in that they use some of the same metrics as Passivhaus and so can be measured against Passivhaus criteria.

The London Plan

The London Plan developed for the Greater London Authority has been at the forefront of pushing high energy efficiency standards for buildings. The Draft London Plan, also currently out to consultation, will push projects built within the Greater London Authority (GLA) to go even further beyond building regulations. The Passivhaus Trust is encouraged by proposals being put forward in the draft London Plan and the adoption of absolute targets, such as space heating demand and Energy Use Intensity (EUI). Next, we need to ensure the industry is ready to deliver 

Local Plans

Local plans developed by local authorities such as Cornwall, Bath & NE Somerset, and Central Lincolnshire, call on developers to go beyond building regulations, often drawing on the Passivhaus methodology. Unfortunately, the Written Ministerial Statement 2023 has created confusion about the ability of local authorities to set sustainability standards above and beyond national regulations. However, the good news is that the final version of the National Planning Policy Framework  - ‘Setting local energy efficiency Standards’ (Policy PM13) -  expressly allows local plans to adopt energy-efficiency standards beyond Building Regulations where they are justified, robustly costed, viability tested, and use the emissions metrics currently used in Building Regulations (known as TER/SAP).

Scottish Schools

It is estimated that around 60% of new schools in Scotland are targeting the Passivhaus standard, thanks to an innovative funding mechanism introduced by the Scottish Futures Trust. Projects receiving funding from SFT need to meet a very clear energy target and funding may be reduced if the school buildings do not perform as designed in post-occupancy monitoring. Many local authorities have been opting for the Certified Passivhaus route to guarantee good building performance, and therefore de-risking the funding.

Homes England

The health benefits of Passivhaus have recently been publicly acknowledged in the Introduction to Homes England’s Healthy Homes  guidance published in November 2025.  “Passivhaus is a well-established design and quality assurance system aimed at reducing energy demand, addressing the 'performance gap' of new buildings, and improving comfort levels for residents. ….There is significant overlap between a Passivhaus approach and the aims of Healthy Homes”.  The Passivhaus standard is cited as demonstrating best practice in relation to energy efficiency, indoor air quality and overheating. Social housing providers developing a project that is seeking Homes England funding will be able to demonstrate ‘good practice enhancements’ to the agency in these three key areas of Homes England’s Healthy Homes guidance by opting for the Passivhaus standard.

UK NZC Building Standard

In March 2026 it was announced that the Passivhaus standard is now deemed to satisfy certain aspects of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard  (UK NZCBS) at practical completion. Passivhaus certification is a deemed-to-satisfy route in the newly-launched Version 1 of the Standard. 

The UK NZCBS is cross-industry initiative to develop the UK's first Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard.  Leading industry organisations BBP, BRE, CIBSE, IStructE, LETI, RIBA, RICS, and UKGBC have joined forces to champion this initiative. Having Passivhaus considered ‘deemed to satisfy’ certain aspects of the standard is a huge leap forward in wider construction industry recognition of the standard.

These and other policy levers will be explored in more depth at our upcoming UK Passivhaus Conference on 18 November in London. The plenary session will explore ‘Passivhaus levers in the UK’, bringing together speakers from the Greater London Authority, the Building Safety Regulator and Warmer Homes London and Barratt London's Head of Design. Topics under discussion will include how Passivhaus aligns with planning policy, building safety regulation and large-scale retrofit and why large-scale developers are adopting the standard.

Please join us either online or in-person on 18 November to help ‘Scale affordable comfort and resilience’. FREE online tickets are available for public sector organisations working on social housing or civic buildings. Eligibility requirements apply.

View the UK Passivhaus Conference programme here: https://ukphc.org.uk/programme