London Passivhaus pipeline passes 4,500 homes as Budget adds £1.5bn for social housing

The Passivhaus Trust has put London's Passivhaus pipeline at 4,516 multi-residential homes, with 3,809 in development and 707 certified, in the same week the Budget committed a further £1.5bn to social and affordable housing in England.

The Trust set the figures against the Budget in its October newsletter, published on 29 October, saying that homes needing very little energy to heat "keep helping for decades" and that the councils, housing associations and designers speaking at its conference next month are already delivering them at scale.

According to the Budget 2026 document published by HM Treasury on 28 October, the additional £1.5bn is intended to deliver around 10,000 homes in England, prioritised for Social Rent and especially council homes. The Treasury said it takes total investment in the Social and Affordable Homes Programme to more than £40bn over 10 years.

The same document launches a £2.6bn Household Energy Payment, which the Treasury said will pay £100 directly into bank accounts from January 2027 for households in England in council tax bands A to D, supporting up to 20 million households.

The London pipeline

The Trust's London round-up said private and social schemes together have added 629 Passivhaus homes in development since its previous update on the capital. Twenty of London's 32 boroughs now have at least one Passivhaus multi-residential scheme, it said.

London Passivhaus homes	Homes
In development	3,809
Certified	707

Hounslow's Convent Way estate regeneration, with 967 homes planned, is London's largest Passivhaus scheme, according to the Trust. Camden and Newham lead on completed delivery with 288 and 283 certified homes respectively, while Hackney has the most schemes in development, with eight infill projects.

Three Barratt London schemes on Places for London sites account for 1,111 homes in the pipeline. The Trust said more than 90% of London's Passivhaus homes are north of the Thames; south of the river, Lewisham leads with four schemes and 281 homes in development.

On the retrofit side, the Trust highlighted James Riley Point as an estate-scale EnerPHit project in London. It said London is becoming a Passivhaus hotspot partly because of policy drivers in the London Plan, and noted that consultation on the Draft London Plan has now closed.

Canary Wharf student towers

The Trust also reported that 1,672 University College London (UCL) students moved this autumn into 2 Trafalgar Way, a three-tower student scheme in Canary Wharf targeting the Passivhaus standard. Also known as Urbanest Canary Wharf, the building comprises towers of 28, 36 and 46 storeys over a shared four-storey podium.

The development is going through Passivhaus certification with the Passive House Institute and is also targeting BREEAM Outstanding. Once certification is confirmed, the Trust said, it will become the UK's largest Passivhaus building.

PHT member Henriksen Studio was Passivhaus designer and facade engineer, and Midgard was the contractor. The scheme follows Urbanest's Battersea Passivhaus student scheme, with a third Passivhaus student scheme in the pipeline at Albert Embankment. Urbanest says the Canary Wharf flats are built to Passivhaus standards and provide sustainable heating, cooling and air filtration.

Calvin Wilson, Managing Director of Metal Technology Ltd, a Passivhaus Trust patron, said in a piece for the Trust on delivering Passivhaus at scale: "If the window schedule and the airtightness test don't match the model, you don't get the certificate."

Metal Technology said Scotland's Learning Estate Investment Programme, developed with the Scottish Futures Trust, ties full funding for new schools to energy targets, and that BAM reports a 48% reduction in energy use in the first year at the Dunfermline Learning Campus. It also cited Erne Campus at South West College, certified in 2021 as the world's first educational Passivhaus Premium building, and Weavers' Hall in Belfast, a 16-storey, 459-bedroom residence for Queen's University Belfast designed to Passivhaus Classic.

Conference and Open Days

The UK Passivhaus Conference 2026 takes place on 18 November at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London and online, with fewer than 100 in-person tickets left and up to 21 PHI credit points available. A limited number of free tickets are available to public sector professionals.

Speakers include Sapna Halai of the Greater London Authority on the London Plan's approach to building performance, John Palmer of the Building Safety Regulator on culture, competence and accountability after Grenfell, and Jack Ostrofsky of Warmer Homes London on holding retrofit quality as funding scales up. Attzaz Rashid, Head of Design at Barratt London, joins the closing panel.

The programme includes a session on scaling retrofit in the UK and a case study on Deptford Landings' procurement route and on-site quality assurance. The Trust's conference article cites an interim estimate of 2,877 heat-associated deaths in England during this year's heatwaves.

Passivhaus Open Days, winter edition, run from 13 to 15 November. Tours are free but booking is essential, only projects calculated with the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) can take part as hosts, and the Trust recommends a maximum of 10 to 15 attendees per host.

The Trust's 2027 Masterclass series, focused on scaling delivery, opens on 27 January with a session on Passivhaus certification that is free for PHT members.