National Centre for Excellence in Housing

The National Centre for Excellence in Housing was launched by NHBC, in partnership with BRE, in 2005 as the sister organisation to the NHBC Foundation and is focused primarily on policy work where the Foundation focuses on pure research. The National Centre was a response to concerns over whether the house-building sector was getting the right kind of support in implementing innovations in house-building techniques, processes and systems. From the outset the National Centre has included existing housing stock under its remit.

One of the major stimuli for its formation was the publication of the influential Barker Report, which triggered wide concern in Government and Industry over the state of the housing market and the ability of the sector to respond to housing needs. It also set targets for change in the industry, in particular tasking the industry to improve customer satisfaction levels.

Senior managers from NHBC and BRE met to discuss whether, by pooling their expertise, they might be able to provide a new level of information support for the sector - the result was the National Centre. Most recently the National Centre has been appointed by the joint industry/Government-led 2016 Taskforce to oversee zero carbon research.

Full details on the work of the National Centre can be found at www.homein.org.