
By Thomas Lane
In 2006, the Labour government gave the housebuilding industry 10 years’ notice to make its products zero-carbon. This ambitious requirement was launched as part of the Code for Sustainable Homes, and included interim carbon reduction targets along the way: 25% reduction in emissions in 2010 and 44% in 2013. Zero-carbon was going to be expensive - adding up to £40,000 per home - but the argument was that the industry would find ways of reducing these costs as the 2016 deadline approached.
About the only aspect of the zero-carbon requirement welcomed by the
industry were the clear carbon reduction milestones along the way. This
gave manufacturers confidence to invest in zero-carbon-friendly products
and galvanised housebuilders into action. A collection of odd-looking
homes sprung up at BRE’s innovation park at Garston, near Watford.
Zero-carbon made the industry innovate.
That confidence has taken a battering since the last election. The chancellor George Osborne changed the definition of zero-carbon in the March 2011 Budget so
housebuilders would no longer have to provide zero-carbon energy for
domestic appliances, just heating, fixed lighting and hot water. Confidence has been further undermined by cuts in feed-in tariff rates for renewable technologies.
The biggest wobble, however, came from the 2013 Part L consultation. Instead of the 25% cut in carbon
emissions over 2010 as proposed in the Code for Sustainable Homes, the
government favoured an 8% cut, citing the election pledge not to place
additional burdens on housebuilders during this parliament. This means
that housebuilders face a much bigger jump in 2016 to keep the
zero-carbon deadline on track. Additionally, the details of allowable
solutions, the mechanism for handling how carbon emissions are mitigated
off site, has yet to be finalised. The Zero Carbon Hub put forward
proposals for managing this process in July 2011 but the government has
yet to respond.
The carbon reduction jump needed in 2016 to keep
the zero-carbon policy on track may be too big for the housebuilding
industry to cope with. This means the date could be shifted to 2019,
which would align with the date for all other buildings to be
zero-carbon. READ MORE >>
via www.building.co.uk
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