Housing Minister Margaret Beckett has set out the Government’s consultatio ...

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett has set out the Government’s consultation process on the details of how it will meet its target for making all new homes zero carbon from 2016. With more than 25% of the UK's carbon emissions produced by housing, and with the Government committed to reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, both existing and new homes must become more carbon efficient.
The consultation proposes a system that both meets our green objectives and recognises the difficult economic conditions facing the housing industry, including:
requiring a greatly increased level of energy efficiency in the fabric of new homes;
setting a minimum level of carbon reduction that developers must achieve on the site of the housing development, such as through improved insulation, or providing onsite renewable energy;
requiring developers to tackle the remaining carbon emissions of the new homes, by choosing measures from a list of ‘allowable solutions’, such as providing energy efficient appliances with the home or exporting low and zero carbon heat and cooling to surrounding developments;
setting a limit on the amount expected to be spent on these allowable solutions, to provide the house-building industry certainty over maximum costs of the policy; and
reviewing the list of allowable solutions in 2012.
Welcoming publication of the consultation, UK Green Building Council Chief Executive Paul King said: ‘UK-GBC has some strong views about what should and shouldn't be allowed to contribute to the definition of a zero carbon home. But as our task group report showed [last] year, these are very complex issues and there will be a lively debate over the coming months. The important thing is that, by the end of the process, we have an approach which is clear, provides certainty to all parties and retains the original environmental ambition underpinning it.’