All new homes in Scotland are set to be built to a Scottish equivalent of the passive house standard, under plans announced by the government recently. But at what cost?

A recent article in Project Scotland, while describing the aim of the policy as “admirable”, warned that it will “undoubtedly lead, at least in the short to medium term, to greater expense in a construction industry already suffering from spiraling costs and, ultimately, the price of housing rising.”

But does this concern stand up to scrutiny? To find out, we spoke with Dr. Shane Colclough, an academic and energy consultant who co-authored two papers comparing fully costed breakdowns of building to the passive house standard versus building regulations in Ireland and Northern Ireland, respectively.

But even if construction costs increase, that doesn’t mean development costs or house prices increase by a single penny, as construction economist Prof Tom Dunne argued in the progenitor of Passive House Plus magazine way back in 2007 (link below: Safe as Houses).

Notes from the episode

• Dr. Shane Colclough on LinkedIn
• The article that prompted this episode: Will the Scottish Government's move towards 'Passivhaus' support zero carbon ambitions?
• Ulster University paper Cost Optimal UK Deployment of the Passive House Standard
• Shane's Investigation of nZEB social housing built to the Passive House standard
• And that 2007 article on why higher energy performance specs don’t mean higher development costs: Safe as Houses
• Shane in Passive House Plus
• Passive House Association of Ireland (PHAI) 

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