The UK will not be able to meet its ambitions for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 without a step-change in attitudes towards reusing old buildings and a shift in the methodology in calculating the carbon footprint of new-build, according to a new report.

This year’s Heritage Counts report, published by Historic England on behalf of the Historic Environment Forum, says early stage research on the “carbon lifetime” of buildings indicates that the carbon emissions of new-build schemes could be being underestimated by almost a third.

It says that a failure to count the embodied carbon of buildings demolished to make way for new structures misses up to 31% off the entire carbon emissions of a new-build property. According to the report, replacing a traditional Victorian terrace with a similarly proportioned house produces up to 13 times more embodied carbon than refurbishment would.

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