Homes by Honey

Why Honey built ahead of the Future Homes Standard

When Mark Mitchell launched Homes by Honey in 2022, he did so with a clear vision to create a housebuilder that would raise the bar for design, quality and sustainability.

Based in Sheffield, this housebuilder is now one of the fastest growing in the UK housing market.

“In today’s market, people expect more,” says Mitchell. “They want style, substance and sustainability. They want a thoughtfully designed home that looks great, feels warm and comfortable, and keeps energy bills low. That’s what we’re focused on delivering.”

To achieve this, Honey has taken a fabric-first approach. And from the outset, the company made it a priority to work with partners who could help deliver high levels of performance, not just on paper but in the real world. Knauf Insulation was chosen to support the design, specification and delivery of Honey’s insulation strategy.

“Even before we got to the design stage, we had a list of providers and products that we knew from our deep industry experience we could trust to help us realise our vision. Knauf Insulation was on that list,” explains Martin White, Group head of technical at Homes by Honey, “We knew that strong thermal performance would be a key pillar of our homes, and that Knauf Insulation could be relied on to help us achieve this.”

Setting a new standard at Thoresby Vale

This partnership has been put into practice at Thoresby Vale, a development in Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire. Here, Honey is delivering a mix of 2, 3, 4 and 5-bedroom homes that already exceeded many of the targets now outlined in the Future Homes Standard (FHS).

Each home is built around a carefully considered fabric specification, using Knauf Insulation’s glass mineral wool products to enhance energy performance. This includes:

Supafil® 34 blown-in glass mineral wool in 150mm fully-filled cavities for all external walls, providing thermal continuity for a U-value of 0.19 W/m²K.

Supafil® Party Wall, to prevent thermal bypass and meet the requirements of SAP 10.

Loft Roll 44, installed to 500mm depth at ceiling level, far above the 270mm minimum, for a U-value of 0.12 W/m²K.

The result is a home that performs. One of the early completions, Plot 056, achieved an EPC rating of A, scoring 92, with an air permeability of 3.9 m³/h.m² and operational CO₂ emissions of just 1.4 tonnes per year, compared to a UK average of six.

Designed for buildability and performance

From a construction perspective, Honey has been focused on buildability just as much as specification.

Supafil® 34 is a blown-in solution that fully fills the cavity and adapts to uneven substrates. Similarly, the three-layer approach used with Loft Roll 44 in the loft space reduces cold bridging and maintains consistent performance over time.

“It’s not just about the spec. It’s about the build,” says White. “The feedback we get from the fitters is that these products are well-suited to use on site. That’s important when you’re building at pace and scale.”

While the final details of the Future Homes Standard had yet to be confirmed at the time, Honey actively designed its homes to exceed Part L requirements and to align with the likely demands of the future policy. This meant delivering homes that are not only well-insulated but also heat pump-ready.

“We designed and built as if the FHS was already here,” says White. “That meant high fabric performance, airtight construction, and making our homes ready for heat pumps. We didn’t know the exact numbers, but we knew the kind of standards we need to hit.”

By driving down heat loss through walls, roofs and party walls, and by controlling air permeability, Honey is ensuring that homes will be compatible with the next generation of low or zero carbon technologies, such as air source heat pumps and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR).

“A big part of being heat pump-ready is minimising heat loss,” explains White. “If you get the fabric wrong, even the most efficient system won’t deliver. We’ve focused on reducing overall heating demand through insulation first.”

This focus on as-built performance also supports long-term homeowner satisfaction, and smooth transitions to low-carbon heating technologies.

“It’s not just about ticking boxes,” adds White. “The homes must work for people in the real world – comfortable, quiet, energy-efficient. That’s how we’ll build trust in these new technologies.”

Sustainability in every layer

Each home built by Honey contains the equivalent of approximately 1,434 recycled beer bottles in glass content, a figure the business proudly shares with buyers.

That’s possible because Knauf Insulation’s glass mineral wool products are manufactured using up to 80% recycled content, including glass collected and processed via its UK recycling partnership with Veolia.

Factors like these contribute to glass mineral wool having the lowest levels of embodied carbon of any mainstream insulation material in the UK.

These products also carry DECLARE Red List Free status and Eurofins Indoor Air Comfort Gold certification, ensuring that the materials are healthy to live with and contribute to better air quality inside the home.

“The sustainability credentials of Knauf products are just as important as their performance,” says Mitchell. “They help us tell a credible story and meet the expectations of buyers, regulators and investors.”

Scaling with confidence

Homes by Honey has grown from a three-person team to more than 100 employees in under three years. With two regional hubs in Sheffield and Leeds, and more than 3,100 homes in the pipeline, the business has created a platform for continued growth and the delivery of much-needed new homes across Yorkshire and the Midlands.

According to White, that kind of growth only works when you get the fundamentals right. “You can’t grow at this pace unless you’re building it right. That means good people, good partners and good products. Knauf Insulation has been part of that journey from the start.”

Mitchell agrees. “They’ve helped us deliver what we set out to do, to build homes that perform better, feel better, and are genuinely fit for the future.”