Ministers have dismissed warnings from MPs that Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) plans to scrap the code for sustainable homes threatens to remove choice and damage a niche part of the UK housebuilding industry.
The rebuttal follows a report issued today by the Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), which urges communities secretary Eric Pickles to rethink plans to axe the policy, which the MPs claim has succeeded in driving up home building standards and supported a sustainable UK building industry.
Communities minister Stephen Williams said: ‘New homes are already being built to high standards of energy efficiency introduced by this government, saving people up to £200 a year on their fuel bills and £60,000 for businesses, as well as making major reductions in carbon emissions from all new buildings.
‘We will be going further still by making all new homes zero carbon from 2016,' Mr Wiliams added.
‘There exists an array of additional standards that councils can apply, or not, on their patch creating a bureaucratic mish-mash of rules that housebuilders face across the country.
'We are consulting on how best to end this confusion and create a simple and effective set of standards that councils and housebuilders can understand and that support new home building without compromising safety or sustainability standards,’ Mr Williams concluded.
The EAC report argued the existing policy, which supports ‘practical, sustainable local solutions will be radically curtailed and replaced with a lowest-common-denominator national standard’.
It also stated the DCLG has failed to back green growth and green innovation by setting clear standards on sustainable construction materials.
‘The secretary of state should think again before demolishing the code for sustainable homes, said Joan Walley, chair of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee.
‘The coalition agreement promised that the Government would ‘return decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils’ but this decision bulldozes local choice in favour of a one-size-fits-all approach designed to benefit developers who want to build homes on the cheap,’ Ms Walley added.
