A plenary putting Passivhaus's biggest levers in one room

Planning policy, building safety regulation and retrofit quality assurance rarely share a stage. At the UK Passivhaus Conference 2026, they will, and then they'll take questions together.

The conference's opening plenary, Passivhaus levers in the UK, brings together speakers from the Greater London Authority, the Building Safety Regulator and Warmer Homes London, closing with a curated panel that puts all three back in conversation with a fourth voice from housebuilding. Between them, the session covers what's being asked of the industry, what's being enforced, and what's actually being built.

Planning: what the London Plan is actually asking for

Sapna Halai, Senior Policy and Programmes Officer for Environment at the Greater London Authority, opens the policy strand with the aims and objectives behind the London Plan's approach to building performance. For local authorities and developers navigating planning requirements across the capital, this is a chance to hear directly from the people who write them.

Regulation: from Grenfell to Passivhaus

John Palmer, Director at the Building Safety Regulator, follows with a session asking why the future of building safety depends on culture, competence and accountability, not just compliance paperwork. Palmer's own career has taken him from Passivhaus practice into the heart of post-Grenfell regulatory reform, giving him a rare vantage point on how quality assurance in one part of the industry can inform another.

Accelerating the pace and scale of retrofit in London

Jack Ostrofsky joins from Warmer Homes London, the team supporting the delivery of London's Warm Homes grant programme across boroughs and housing associations, to look at quality assurance in retrofit specifically. Where Halai sets the policy and Palmer covers regulatory accountability, Ostrofsky brings the delivery-side view: what it actually takes to hold retrofit quality to a consistent standard once funding starts moving at scale, where challenges and opportunities lie.

The panel: developers in the room too

The plenary closes with a 25-minute curated panel and audience Q&A, bringing all three speakers back together with Attzaz Rashid, Head of Design at Barratt London, who leads the housebuilder's Lo-E Homes initiative. It's a rare line-up in one session: the people who set planning policy, enforce building safety, hold retrofit funding to account, and build homes at scale for the private market, answering questions in the same room.

Why this matters now

Passivhaus has spent years proving itself project by project. The institutions setting policy, enforcing regulation and funding delivery are now sharing a stage with each other, and with a major private housebuilder, to talk about what it takes to build & deliver this quality at scale. For housing providers, local authorities and developers weighing up whether Passivhaus is a niche standard or a mainstream direction of travel, this plenary is a clear signal.

"Passivhaus is the framework and has the leverage to solve these issues all in one place, holistically and collaboratively. This is what we are so proud of demonstrating at this years UK Passivhaus Conference. "

Ann-Marie Fallon, Co-Director, Passivhaus Trust

Passivhaus levers in the UK opens the UK Passivhaus Conference 2026, 18 November, Queen Elizabeth II Centre, London and online. We will be announcing our headline keynote speaker shortly, watch this space. Book your place at ukphc.org.uk.

Thanks to generous sponsorship, a limited number of free in-person tickets are available to those working within the public sector of the construction industry.