Chris Scott, Chief Commercial Officer on the Future Homes Hub Conference 2025: Progress, Partnership and the Road Ahead

Attending the Future Homes Hub conference was energising. The atmosphere, both in the main sessions and the breakouts, was charged with a sense of progress and partnership. 

Day-to-day, my focus is on unlocking development through delivering biodiversity net gain (BNG). So, hearing first-hand about the broader challenges housebuilders face, particularly around building nature-positive homes and developing at scale, was invaluable.

What struck me most was the collective appreciation of nature as infrastructure. There’s a real willingness to overcome these challenges together. But right now, that ambition is up against some tough misalignments in incentives.

Mortgage lenders aren’t recognising the added value of super-efficient, nature-positive homes, or how much more desirable homes overlooking green spaces are to buyers. And despite record levels of renewable energy in the grid, the high cost of electricity means developers are almost incentivised to stick with gas heating. Now that’s worrying.

One thing I didn’t hear? Any suggestion that BNG is a blocker to development, as some sensationalist headlines and even parliamentary debates have claimed. From the presentations, discussions, and countless conversations over coffee, it’s clear: developers want to deliver positive outcomes. They’re navigating complexity, yes, but they’re doing it willingly.

The challenge now is aligning incentives with intention. If we can do that, the future of housing can be both sustainable and scalable, and nature will be at the heart of it.