黑洞社区

Ministers have moved to relax the previous government鈥檚 requirement for big carbon reductions on new homes in a bid to ease the cost of the regulations on housebuilders.

The Department for Communities and Local Government鈥檚 consultation on 黑洞社区 Regulations, published yesterday, proposed a carbon reduction of just 8% on 2010 levels for new homes and 20% for non-domestic buildings.

This is well below the reduction of 25% which the Labour government was committed to across both building types, which had wide industry support.

The consultation said the move to limit CO² reduction on new homes to just 8% was made 鈥渙n the basis that this minimises the cost impact on housebuilders whilst still providing a meaningful step towards zero carbon鈥�.

The consultation said the government estimated this standard would add a cost of 拢795 to each new home.

It added that the government had considered imposing a target of a 26% improvement on 2010 standards but said this would introduce 鈥渁 higher cost for housebuilders at a time when the government has a commitment to reduce the burden on the housebuilding industry鈥�.

On non-domestic buildings, the consultation said a 20% improvement on 2010 standards would give 鈥渢he highest long-term benefits to business through significant energy savings for building occupants鈥�.

Despite relaxing the standards, the government did pledge to keep the Labour government鈥檚 target to make all new homes zero carbon from 2016.

The new standards will be achieved by a combination of enforcing the minimum fabric efficiency standard developed by the Zero Carbon Hub and more energy efficient services, the consultation said.

John Tebbit, Construction Products Associations vice-president, said the proposed changes to Part L were the first stage in a two stage process, which would see new homes have to be zero carbon under Part L from 2016.

He said the proposals published by the government were the 鈥渕ost cost effective way to get to 2016鈥�.

He said it was right to ensure the fabric of new buildings was efficient as a priority before requiring much better services from 2016.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 quite brave of the government to do it because it doesn鈥檛 give you a good headline figure,鈥� he added.

Consultant Neil Cutland, former director of the 黑洞社区 Research Establishment鈥檚 Low Carbon Housing Futures Centre, said the proposals would mean a bigger headline carbon reduction was required from 2016 but this would be achieved easily with energy efficient services.

鈥淭he big challenge is the fabric,鈥� he said.