{"id":47528,"date":"2026-07-31T16:53:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=47528"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:53:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:53:41","slug":"ihbcs-practice-cpd-signpost-aj-opinion-industry-demands-retrofit-first-new-government-shouldnt-waste-a-second","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=47528","title":{"rendered":"IHBC\u2019s \u2018Practice\u2019 CPD Signpost: AJ Opinion: \u2018\u2026 industry demands retrofit-first\u2026 new government shouldn\u2019t waste a second\u2026\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the UK is hit by the fourth heatwave of 2026, <em>Will Hurst<\/em> argues in the <em>Architects\u2019 Journal <\/em>(<em>AJ<\/em>) that a bombshell MHCLG survey has laid bare years of failure by central government to regulate construction\u2019s carbon footprint, \u2018including the 20 per cent VAT penalty\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Will Hurst writes for the <em>AJ<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026 Based on 13 qualitative interviews and almost 1,000 survey responses from organisations including the RIBA, the RTPI\u2026 and the Home Builders Federation, the paper reports overwhelming evidence that the UK\u2019s planning system is unclear and weak on embodied carbon. It also confirms that financial factors, including the 20 per cent VAT penalty, make retrofit commercially unattractive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">.. \u2018The findings reveal strong stakeholder support for clearer national guidance, standardised carbon assessment methods, and fiscal measures such as VAT harmonisation to incentivise retrofit,\u2019 the report said\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/the-industry-demands-retrofit-first-policies-the-new-government-shouldnt-waste-a-second\">Read more here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See the \u2018bombshell\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/demolition-and-redevelopment-or-retrofit-research-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the UK is hit by the fourth heatwave of 2026, Will Hurst argues in the Architects\u2019 Journal (AJ) that a bombshell MHCLG survey has laid bare years of failure by central government to regulate construction\u2019s carbon footprint, \u2018including the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=47528\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[942,27,20,9,748,13],"class_list":["post-47528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ihbc-newsblog","tag-carbon-footprint","tag-construction","tag-cpd","tag-government","tag-practice","tag-retrofit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47529,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47528\/revisions\/47529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}