What voters want from housing
The Government has pledged 1.5m homes in this Parliament and is working hard to deliver. The £39bn ten-year funding for social housing in the Comprehensive Spending Review follows various reforms to planning as Angela Rayner strives to reach her incredibly ambitious numerical target.
But beyond raw numbers, what factors do voters prioritise in their homes? UK Concrete commissioned Opinium to conduct in-depth research about public attitudes to their homes, how they are built, and what they value in them. The findings in ‘Homes 2025: A National Conversation’ take on board the views of 5,000 homeowners, private and social renters across the UK.
The report’s findings underline the value that people put on the quality and performance of their home to deliver energy efficiency, and thus cost savings, but also to protect against damp, mould, flooding and fire. All of these are linked to the materials used in construction. Less priority was afforded to tackling carbon emissions associated with homes.
Resilience is key
The findings indicate that fire resilience is a key issue for the public, with 87 per cent saying that having their home constructed from fire-resistant materials was important. In a changing climate, 90 per cent of people rate construction of their home from materials that protect against water damage as important. When asked what they most feared happening to their current home, a quarter of respondents said “leaks or escape of water.”
63 per cent of respondents said that build quality should be right at the top of the government’s agenda when planning out the homes being built over the next five years, so new homes must be delivered with a focus on high quality resilient construction.
While people place a high value on the properties of building materials that make up their homes, only 14 per cent of people polled received information about the materials their home is made from when they moved in. The important materials such as concrete masonry blocks that form the structure are often hidden beneath brick facades but are critical to water and fire resilience. So, it should be a priority to better inform people about the fire safety and climate resilience properties of the materials used to construct their home, especially those that are not visible.
Concrete and masonry are used effectively in housing to provide energy efficiency and natural cooling. They are also non-combustible and resilient to the impacts of water. To deliver homes that are fit for the future, housing providers should continue to choose materials to reflect what residents and voters actually want from their homes.
Saving carbon = saving money
Residents view sustainability primarily through the lens of energy efficiency and its consequent ability to reduce energy costs. According to the research, the cost of living crisis has made 68 per cent of homeowners and renters in the UK more aware of how energy efficient their current home is compared to two years ago, but only 26 per cent of people said they were motivated to retrofit their home to save carbon. However, 68 per cent of owners have no plans to retrofit their homes or install a heat pump in the next five years.
The latter may well be a result of the cost of living crisis. In the survey 64 per cent of prospective buyers ranked the affordability of new homes built in the next five years as the top priority for government and housebuilders.
From the cost of living and saving money on the running of a home, to the threat of fire and a changing climate, these are the issues of importance to homeowners and renters in 2025. All of these concerns are impacted by the materials with which new homes are built, especially those that make up the structure.
Concrete masonry is well-established and familiar as the way most houses in England are built, with a robust local supply chain supplying many thousands of jobs in construction. As government drives its growth mission through housing delivery, and renters and owners are more aware than ever before of the need for resilience and energy efficiency, it is clear that choosing the right materials can deliver for Government’s policy agenda and, more importantly, homes that deliver what voters actually want.
