Create Streets Calls for 120-Year Lifespan for Bricks in Carbon Assessments as UK Brick Output Falls 32 Percent

Create Streets recommended that whole-life carbon assessments assign bricks a minimum lifespan of 120 years rather than the current 60-year standard. GB News reported that the change would better reflect the durability of brick buildings, of which 40 percent of English houses are more than 60 years old, 27 percent more than 80 years old and 15 percent more than 110 years old.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ Whole Life Carbon Assessment standard uses a 60-year reference period drawn from European regulations.

London already requires whole-life cycle carbon assessments for major developments under its London Plan. The UK Government is considering how to approach embodied carbon in new buildings but has no current regulation on the issue. Nicholas Boys Smith, founder of Create Streets and visiting professor in architecture at the University of Strathclyde, said the 60-year benchmark is a “simple but incredibly serious error” that makes bricks appear more high-carbon than they are.

He added that bricks require kilns reaching more than 1,000°C yet endure far longer than many alternative materials. The UK brick industry directly employs almost 8,000 workers and is worth £1.3 billion to the economy. Domestic production fell from 2 billion bricks in 2022 to 1.3 billion in 2024, a 32 percent drop.

Britain imports nearly 20 percent of its bricks, with more than 500 million imported in 2022 that added nearly 300,000 tonnes of CO2 from transport. Carbon emissions from the UK brick sector have fallen 47 percent since 2003. The report Bricks Are Best, funded by Ceramics UK, warned that the existing standard risks shifting builders toward materials with higher actual carbon footprints over time.