Are major home builders really going to be building zero carbon houses as standard within the next ten years? The flurry of announcements from different government departments before Christmas on the Code for Sustainable Homes and the future of zero carbon development were perhaps most notable for the way in which they seemed to be almost universally well-received by the industry. Kevin Telfer investigates.



Extract:
The Home Builder’s Federation (HBF) say that their 300 member firms account for more than 80% of new homes built in England and Wales every year. They stated that they ‘welcomed the government’s environmental vision on housing.’ Jack Pringle, the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) said that ‘taking new homes to zero carbon within ten years is an ambitious but necessary government target, and the code for sustainable homes will be fundamental to meeting it’. All the more remarkable, then, that the WWF should also seem to be in favour of the proposals with their director of campaigns, Paul King, saying that ‘the Code demonstrates a real commitment by this government to develop sustainable homes and reinforces the move made by Gordon Brown (purchasers to be stamp duty exempt when buying zero carbon homes) to make all new homes zero carbon within ten years’. So it would seem that we are currently in a win-win situation: the government is laying down targets and the groups representing key stakeholders – principally home builders and environmentalists, once the fiercest of enemies, now, it would seem, the greatest of friends - are happy with those targets and confident that they will be met. The future of sustainable building and the achievement of massive domestic carbon emissions cuts in a bid to mitigate climate change, are looking rosy so it’s time to head home, relax and inwardly congratulate everybody involved over a nice cup of tea.

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