It has urged that government must work with industry to support the necessary upskilling needed to achieve this and provide guidance not only for tradespeople and designers but to consumers who will be unfamiliar with some of the new technologies deployed.

In its response, CIC requested support for post-occupancy evaluations and the use of a delivered energy metric which can create a feedback loop with the design predictions.

It also highlighted the council’s disappointment that the measurement of embodied carbon is not being considered as part of this consultation, given that embodied carbon could make up 70% of a new home’s whole-life carbon.

The CIC said that the need for a parallel government strategy is to ensure that appropriate, accredited, and trained professionals are available to properly oversee the installation — and maintenance — of energy saving measures such as heat pumps.

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Similarly, the importance of improving standards for homes converted through permitted development — particularly on areas such as overheating — and the need for owners and residents to have the same information about their home as buyers of wholly newbuild homes were discussed.

Prof. Stephen Hodder, CIC climate change committee chair, said: “This standard is likely to be government’s legacy and having waited so long we need to ensure that we get it right as we could be building or converting millions of homes under the proposals.

“These homes are likely to see the worst impacts of climate change and will need to be robust and resilient though this and therefore they need to be future-proof or at least adaptable.”

Prof. Tony Crook, chair at CIC’s housing panel, added: “We support high quality retrofit and this extends to materials change of use, which can also mean less construction waste and lower whole-life carbon.

“But homes created in this way need to be safe, sustainable and nurture sustainable communities we do not need homes that will be obsolete in a decade’s time because the structure is unsound and the conversion has been carried out in a way that puts residents’ health at risk.”