The power of Passivhaus

How can Passivhaus contribute to creating sustainable homes of the future?

Passivhaus is a big part of the solution to creating resilient homes and neighbourhoods. Although on the rise in London, it’s not widely understood. We heard from speakers at various stages of adopting Passivhaus about the reality of delivering it, and the potential it has for creating more sustainable homes in London.

Speakers

• Carolina Eboli, Associate Director, PRD
• Rodrigo García Priego, Head of Energy & Carbon, Greengage
• Mark Newstead, Director of Major Programmes, L&Q
• Emma Osmundsen, Assistant Director Housing Regeneration, Ealing Council

Carolina Eboli, PRD

Carolina opened the session by giving some context and emphasising that while we’re talking about sustainability, we need to consider the whole picture.

• The housing crisis is hollowing out the capacity of our local authorities to fulfil their fundamental role and at the moment, development is not “coming to their rescue”. The slow market means development isn’t happening at a fast enough rate to fund more affordable housing.
• Market conditions are forcing us to ask fundamental questions about how we create homes and communities that are genuinely sustainable in every sense of the word.

“Passivhaus is about people, not just sustainability. It is a route to creating the housing we need for the future” – Carolina Eboli

Rodrigo García Priego, Greengage

Rodrigo has experience of delivering and advising on Passivhaus in his role at Greengage Environmental. He walked us through some of the technical details to demonstrate the potential of Passivhaus and the considerations at different design stages.

• Passivhaus design can be low energy, low carbon and resilient to climate change. On top of this, it can realise wider societal benefits through low running costs and improving the health and comfort of residents.
• Preplanning is a critical phase for Passivhaus. There are design decisions such as massing and façade design which need to be made early to realise cost reductions and ensure the home performs. So Passivhaus must be considered from the beginning of a project.

“Everyone in the project team needs to be invested in Passivhaus from the beginning. It can’t be seen as an add-on, or something the Passivhaus designer is doing. It has to be embedded.” – Rodrigo García Priego

Emma Osmundsen, Ealing Council

As chair of Passivhaus UK, Emma is a real champion of the standard. She been delivering Passivhaus buildings for two decades. Emma spoke about the current uptake of Passivhaus in London, projects underway in Ealing and the role it can play beyond sustainability.

• Passivhaus is based on building physics – it works! The certification route is all about eradicating the performance gap. It’s tried and tested and a huge amount of post-development studies have been carried out. Using the certification route guarantees quality and the safety of residents.
• Over 3000 homes going for Passivhaus certification are underway in London, with local authorities leading the way.
• Passivhaus is somewhat at odds with the priority for heat networks in the London Plan. Passivhaus homes have a low heat demand which do not need to connect to a heat network. The cost of heat networks and Passivhaus combined is off-putting for developers and this needs to be addressed to increase uptake.

“From a council perspective, with the most recent legislation and policy change that’s taking place Passivhaus is really failsafe way of navigating through climate change and crisis, but emerging new standards like future homes standard” – Emma Osmundsen

Mark Newstead, L&Q

L&Q is at the beginning of their Passivhaus journey, piloting 72 new homes in Merton. Mark and colleagues are sold on the benefits, so why isn’t it more mainstream? He talked us through some of the barriers to making it happen, and what needs to be in place for housing associations to adopt Passivhaus as an approach.

• Passivhaus can be off putting because of the higher upfront costs, a lack of expertise, perceived complexity and risks, supply chain capacity and fear of the demanding quality requirements.
• Build quality has been an issue in our industry in recent years. Passivhaus helps to assure that quality.
• The industry needs to look at the value proposition of Passivhaus in a different way, considering the whole life cost. A focus on all the reasons Passivhaus is great for residents can help unlock the senior buy-in to deliver.

“There’s got to be more training, leadership, better quality control. We need to build more capacity in the industry to adopt Passivhaus principles.” – Mark Newstead

Conference session write-ups

Keynotes

Somers Town field trip

Resident protection and wellbeing

The power of Passivhaus

Quality housing for all

Resident safety and wellbeing

Unlocking temporary accommodation supply

An equitable future: Lessons from Kidbrooke Park

Postcards from future neighbourhoods

Systems thinking to deliver future homes

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Homes for the Future programme

The conference is part of our major Knowledge programme for 2025/6. The conference ideas and insights will contribute to our overall research.

We will publish a final report in February 2026 with case studies and practical recommendations. Find out more about our Homes for the Future programme.

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