Sustainability is a core topic and key consideration within the built environment. But what role does time have to play? Here, Aimee Fletcher, Product and Design Manager at EGGER UK, explores the concept of sustainable future design in more detail…

When it comes to sustainability and constructing the greener homes of the future, it’s not enough to just look at how a building product or material is manufactured. While the raw materials and production processes are integral to its environmental credentials, true sustainability goes far behind that, requiring a careful consideration of the future.

Sustainable future design, or designing for the future, is about more than just a box ticking exercise – it’s about changing the way we think. It’s on us as manufacturers, specifiers, housebuilders and developers to ensure that our building finishes and aesthetics remain on trend for longer, that the products and systems being specified are built to last, and that interior living spaces are designed with ergonomics in mind.

Timeless trends

From flooring to built-in bedroom furniture and kitchen cabinetry, these are the exciting finishing touches chosen by a homeowner. With the rise of social media and the digital world, the desire to be ‘on trend’ is more prevalent than ever, having a strong influence on purchasing decisions. No one wants to invest in a new kitchen, for example, only for it to look tired and dated after just a couple of years. Indeed, with all the work and resources that have gone into its production, you will want it to remain inuse for as long as possible. With this in mind, opting for timeless aesthetics when it comes to flooring, builtin furniture and cabinetry is invaluable. As well as providing longevity to the space, ensuring it remains ‘on trend’ for longer, it also ensures the carbon contained within the products and materials is locked away for longer. One safe bet is biophilic design – a trend that is clearly here to stay – and its nuances of natural looking finishes like timeless stones and elegant wood effects. In fact, when you consider that the very word ‘sustainability’ often conjures up images of nature, the outdoors, leaves and trees, biophilic design really is the perfect match.

At EGGER, our focus is on curating collections and colour concepts that can be easily combined and updated, creating a harmonious, complementary and on trend look throughout a home.

Quality that is built to last

Whether it’s a new home or new kitchen, either is a significant investment by the buyer. As such, it’s important that the finishes provided stand the test of time. Specifying quality materials and products is another way you can indirectly deliver on sustainability, providing long-lasting, reliable performance. This mindset is particularly important when you consider the time invested into timber products. While wood is an inherently renewable and natural material, the trees we are planting now won’t be ready to harvest and use within manufacturing for another 40-50 years.

Today’s forestry teams are really out working for the future of the built environment. With trees taking such a significant length of time to grow to maturity, it’s only right that we are making a product from this investment that mirrors its longevity and continues to lock away carbon for decades to come.

Designing for future users

Thinking about the end user is an obvious part of housebuilding and interior design, but this shouldn’t be limited to just today’s end user. What about 10, 20 or even 30 years down the line; how will their needs have changed? This is where ergonomics should be considered, the scientific discipline that involves designing products and environments to match the individuals who use them.

It’s no secret that we have an aging population. In 2026, 26% of the population will be over 65 and by 2050, the world’s 60+ population will account for over two billion people. This raises the question of how can we ensure we are designing homes today that are fit for these future generations?

By designing with functionality, accessibility and use-ability in mind, it not only increases the longer-term use of the furniture or space (linking back to. sustainable futures), but it can also support healthier aging outcomes for the users. By adopting the mindset that design inspiration cannot come at the cost of functionality, we are truly contributing to legacy pieces of household furniture.

Looking to the future

It’s no longer enough to just examine a product’s environmental credentials. Instead, it’s important to ask other questions of it, including how long it will last? Is it suitable for today’s users or also someone 20 years down the line? Is the colour on trend and will it remain a timeless aesthetic?

At EGGER, longevity is at the core of everything we do – not just from an environmental perspective but also from that of design, production and functionality. Learn more about our decorative solutions for flooring, furniture and surfaces online or by visiting our EGGER LONDON showroom at 1 Dallington Street, London, EC1V 0BH.

For more information go to www.rdr.link/dbh028

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PHPD rounds up the industry reaction to December 2024’s revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Read on to find out what’s changed and what to expect from housebuilding in the future.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), first published in 2012, has long been seen as a hurdle to new developments rather than a help, particularly for small builders. Under this framework, (now on its sixth revision) strict regulations requirements without much advice, no clear countrywide plan and understaffed and inefficient planning authorities have all had a part to play in holding back housing growth.

The most recent revision to the NPPF came just a few months ago, in December, and sought to rectify these issues and “Get Britain Building Again”. The revision is something that’s been hotly anticipated by the industry, in the hopes it will put words and promises into action and show just how the Labour Government intends to reach that lofty 1.5 millions homes by next parliament.

The revised NPPF is the result of over 10,000 responses from those in the industry to the Government’s consultation, which ran from July to September. Here are the change highlights:

• Mandatory housing targets for councils
• Increased housebuilding targets that work with communities for areas with the highest unaffordability for housing and greatest potential for growth
• A brownfield first approach, coupled with green belt ‘golden rules’ that will redefine lower quality areas as ‘grey belt’ land and make sure necessary infrastructure is provided
• Council and developer social housing responsibility for genuine affordable homes
• £100m additional cash for councils’ planning officers, along with 300 additional planning officers, will see faster decision making to turbocharge growth and get families onto the property ladder

So what does the industry think of all this?

Federation of Master Builders (FMB)
Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB explains: “The pragmatic approach to the green belt and local targets is much needed as they may help push through homes where they’re needed most. But not revising the small site allocation in local plans is going to come as a disappointment for small house builders, who desperately need available land to build on, which they’ve been reporting as a blocker for years.”

Berry continued: “Other fundamental issues are also at play. Small house builders are at the sharp end of the planning system, often having to jump through the same hoops as volume developers. While any increase to planning officer numbers is welcome, the 300 proposed is a drop in the ocean and will not turn the tide for the nation’s local house builders.”

National Federation of Builders (NFB)
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders, summarises: Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insight at the NFB and House Builders Association (HBA), praised, “delaying spatial planning until a strategic framework is in place” but highlighted concerns elsewhere: “The planning conditions discharge fees are set to rise, without any indication that their abuse will be limited.” “Planning fees are also set to rise, without any announcement of recourse if services are poor.”

Federation of Small Businesses (FSB)
Tina McKenzie, Policy Chair at the FSB, thinks that while these planning announcements are “welcome”, Government “now needs to seriously consider how these homes are going t be built: “It simply cannot happen with a focus purely on larger volume builders, who cannot efficiently address the smaller sites needed to achieve the target number of new homes. The only way Government can hit these targets is to involve and utilise the nation’s army of small housebuilders.

“We’re calling on Government to publish a Small Housebuilder Strategy that includes a long-term plan and programme of support for the sector, so they can achieve their potential in contributing to the targets.”

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)
Commenting on the National Planning Policy Framework, CPRE chief executive Roger Mortlock reflects: “The government’s plans risk a huge hike in the number of unaffordable, cardependent homes. Building on England’s 1.2 million shovel-ready brownfield sites would do far more to unlock growth, regenerate communities and provide sustainable, genuinely affordable new homes.”

Home Builders Federation (HBF)
On the NPPF, Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive at the HBF says: “The swift moves to address the constraints in the planning system are welcome and underline the Government’s commitment to increasing housing delivery, but further policy interventions are needed if we are to meet the ambitious target. “Demand for new homes is suppressed by a lack of affordable mortgage lending and support for first-time buyers in particular is desperately needed. We also need to release the tens of thousands of unsold affordable homes provided by house builders as part of their planning permissions, that cash-strapped Housing Associations are not able to currently acquire; and a solution to the unnecessary nutrient neutrality issue that is holding up around 160,000 new homes. Ensuring local authority planning departments have sufficient capacity to process applications efficiently will also be key.”

Leaders Romans Group (LRG) Ian Barnett, National Land Director, LRG comments: “The new NPPF gives an opportunity for the whole narrative on development and housing delivery to change. Whilst some would like to have seen more in terms of strategic planning, today’s NPPF at least gives a new window of opportunity for many sites that are suitable for development and which have been held up by inefficiencies and lack of resources, meddling local politics and NIMBYism to come forward.

“Delivering 1.5m houses in the first term is ambitious and unrealistic but it was utterly impossible under the previous planning system. The time for delivery is here and it’s the responsibility of everyone in the industry – developers, landowners, planners and local authorities to do what is needed. The framework is there – but it will take time to bed in and what we need now more than anything after a new NPPF update for the last two Christmases is stability so we can get on with the task ahead.”

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