What is the NextGeneration Initiative?
NextGeneration is the sustainability
benchmarking system for UK homebuilders.
NextGeneration enables homebuilders, government, registered providers, investors,
employees, and the public to understand the sustainability of benchmarked homebuilders’
operations and the new homes they build. It also sets out what good practice looks like
and drives change in the industry, with the criteria of the benchmarks being publicly
available. They assess homebuilders, not on whether they are meeting minimum
standards and mandatory disclosures, but going beyond these requirements.
Our History
The NextGeneration initiative was originally developed in 2006 to build upon the successes of previous benchmarking exercises undertaken by insight Investment and WWF UK. The NextGeneration Benchmark was designed for assessing the corporate sustainability of the largest homebuilders in the UK, but recently the service offering has expanded to support all homebuilder across the UK, regardless of size, improve their sustainability performance.
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
NEXTGENERATION SERVICES
NextGeneration offers a range of services that are suitable for different homebuilder sizes and sustainability
journey stages; NextGeneration Benchmark, NextGeneration Core & NextGeneration Project.
NEXTGENERATION BENCHMARK
25 largest homebuilders in the UK alongside
any voluntary participants
NEXTGENERATION CORE
is an intermediate corporate sustainability
benchmark for small to mid-size homebuilders to
measure their sustainability against best practice
NEXTGENERATION PROJECT
is a project-level sustainability assessment
for a wide range of homebuilders to measure
their performance on site
NEXTGENERATION SERVICES COMPARISON
Click to view comparison table
| NG Benchmark | NextGeneration Core | NextGeneration Project | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | - Corporate (i.e. company operations and developments) | - Corporate (i.e. company operations and developments) | - Individual development |
| Eligibility | - Automatically included: largest 25 homebuilders in the UK by housing turnover and legal completions OR - Voluntary participation | - Voluntary homebuilders smaller than the largest 25 in the UK | - Any voluntary homebuilder |
| Number of Criteria | - 68 criteria - 120+ sub-criteria | - 14 criteria - 18 sub-criteria | - 12 criteria but outside the first three criteria, these are optional |
| Timing | - Occurs annually, starting in April. - Homebuilders must agree membership by mid-April. | - Occurs throughout the year, but homebuilders must enter by 31st August for their results to be included in that year’s analysis | - Occurs throughout the year |
| Process Length | - 9 months | - 6 weeks minimum | - 6 weeks minimum |
| Outputs | - NextGeneration Benchmark Assessment - NextGeneration Results Presentation & Meeting | - NextGeneration Core Assessment - NextGeneration Results Meeting | - NextGeneration Project Assessment - NextGeneration Project Label |
| Awards | - The highest performing homebuilders overall receive Gold, Silver or Bronze Awards - The highest performing homebuilder in Phase 1 (based on publicly available information) receives a Crystal Award | - No awards currently available for this service. Instead, a score is provided. | - Developments receive Gold, Silver or Bronze Awards depending on the number of additional criteria they achieve - Bronze is 1+ - Silver is 4+ - Gold is 7+ |
“Access to a safe, secure and sustainable home is the foundation for so many of our fundamental human needs. As a society, we owe it to ourselves and future generations to ensure that we build homes that are affordable, sustainable and form the bedrock of great communities. NextGeneration continues to play a leading sustainability role in the sector and I am excited by another year of strong progress, including an increase in membership.”
"In the face of a variety of economic and political headwinds, the UK house building sector has made strides this year to improve its sustainability performance, with an average 8% improvement on the Benchmark. However, the sector cannot rest on this advancement in progress, as continued address the ecological and climate crises unfolding, while achieving positive social impact and a just transition. NextGeneration serves as a vital platform that provides all UK homebuilders with the tools they need to further improve their sustainability performance and tackle the environmental and social challenges that society now acknowledges requires change."
"NextGeneration provides a robust and challenging framework that enables homebuilders to demonstrate their commitment to creating sustainable homes and thriving communities. The NextGeneration Initiative continues to strive to push the homebuilding sector towards a more sustainable footing year on year. At Homes England, we are pleased to work with all those involved in driving these improvements. I am also delighted to see that the wide range of projects assessed under the Benchmark have been supported through Homes England’s various interventions."
"In the face of our rapidly worsening climate emergency, the UK’s built environment can’t afford any delay to our sustainability transition. As many developers have put the climate emergency front and centre of their future business models, we know that even more can play a more impactful role in delivering the solutions we need at scale and speed.
The NextGeneration Benchmark is a critical tool to help our sector understand where we are and – most crucially – how far we still have to go to achieve the systemic, radical transformations of a net zero, climate-resilient, regenerative built environment.”