In April 2025, BRE launched BREEAM UK New Construction: Residential V6.1, rebranding the Home Quality Mark (HQM) under the wider BREEAM family. For project teams already familiar with HQM, the core residential quality focus remains, but V6.1 introduces a small number of targeted technical updates alongside the rebrand.
Rather than a complete overhaul, BRE presents V6.1 as a minor scheme update. The main areas of change are Issue 4.2 Natural Light, Issue 6.2 Building Life Cycle Assessment, and updated evidence guidance across the scheme.
Why the change from HQM?
HQM was already a BRE scheme, but the 2025 transition brings residential certification more clearly into the BREEAM product range. BRE says the change is intended to improve recognition, make the scheme easier to navigate, and align it more closely with the wider BREEAM framework used across the built environment.
For developers, investors, planners, and other stakeholders, that clearer branding may make residential certification easier to understand and communicate. At the same time, BRE has been clear that the operational approach remains familiar and that most of the technical framework is unchanged from HQM V6.
What’s new in V6.1?
Building Life Cycle Assessment (Issue 6.2)
One of the most significant technical updates in V6.1 is Issue 6.2, now titled Building Life Cycle Assessment. BRE identifies this as one of the key areas substantially rewritten in the new version, with changes intended to improve alignment with industry standards and reporting requirements for lifecycle assessment and embodied carbon.
In practice, this means project teams should expect greater emphasis on robust life cycle assessment and clearer embodied carbon reporting within the assessment process. For teams already carrying out whole-life carbon studies, this change strengthens the case for integrating that work early rather than treating it as a late-stage add-on.
Energy and carbon performance (Issue 5.1)
Issue 5.1 remains a core part of the residential assessment, but it is important not to overstate what changed in V6.1. The Home Energy Performance Ratio, or HEPR, was already part of HQM methodology before the rebrand, so it should not be described as a new V6.1 metric.
Based on BRE’s published change summary, the V6.1 update to Issue 5.1 is limited compared with the more substantial changes made to Natural Light and Building Life Cycle Assessment. So if you are explaining V6.1, it is more accurate to present energy assessment as a continuing part of the framework rather than a headline innovation introduced by this version.
Natural Light (Issue 4.2)
Another major update is Issue 4.2, now called Natural Light. BRE says this issue was substantially rewritten in V6.1, making it one of the clearest technical changes from HQM V6 to the new residential framework.
This reflects continued emphasis on internal environmental quality and occupant wellbeing within residential design. When writing about this issue, it is safer to refer to revised natural light criteria in general terms unless you are quoting directly from the technical manual.
Evidence requirements
V6.1 also updates evidence guidance across all assessment issues. BRE’s change summary notes that Appendix C and the schedule of evidence tables were revised to improve clarity and better reflect what is required at each stage of assessment.
For assessors and project teams, that should make the certification pathway easier to follow and reduce ambiguity around document requirements. This is not a dramatic change in scheme structure, but it is a useful practical improvement.
What does this mean for developers?
For most project teams, the biggest takeaway is that BREEAM UK New Construction: Residential V6.1 is not a completely new methodology. It is better understood as HQM V6 rebranded under BREEAM, with a limited number of important updates in selected areas.
The practical focus should therefore be on understanding the revised requirements for Natural Light, the stronger treatment of Building Life Cycle Assessment, and the clarified evidence expectations. Teams that pick these up early in design will be in a stronger position when the assessment reaches interim and final certification stages.
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