Housing minister Yvette Cooper says she is following the initiative with interest and is listening to concerns





Housing and planning minister Yvette Cooper said this week that she was following 鈥渨ith interest鈥� 黑洞社区鈥檚 Reform the Regs campaign and declared that the industry was central to delivering high quality buildings.

Cooper said she wanted to listen to the concerns of 黑洞社区 readers: 鈥淚 am keen to hear views on how we can bring forward improvements to building standards.鈥�

Her support for the initiative comes despite confusion over which minister is responsible for the Sustainable 黑洞社区 Code, which is linked to the 黑洞社区 Regulations. The planned consultation on the code has been delayed to next month.

Elliot Morley, minister of state for the environment at DEFRA, announced last week that the targets in the code would be higher than present eco-ratings. It was a surprise to many that Morley made this statement as Cooper, the appropriate minister at the ODPM, is responsible for the changes.

Morley told MPs during parliamentary questions that the highest level in the code would be zero carbon emissions; to achieve this buildings must use no more energy than they generate.

The code will set standards for energy, waste, water and building materials in homes. It comes into force in April. The government says all new homes receiving government funding must meet the code.

Morley said it would have a number of performance levels. Those for homes are expected to be based on BRE鈥檚 EcoHomes scoring system, which is part of BREEAM.

I am keen to hear views on how to improve standards

Housing minister Yvette Cooper

Alan Yates, BREEAM technical director, said it would be possible to raise the EcoHomes ratings if the government wanted higher levels in the code. He said: 鈥淭here is significant room for ratcheting up standards. The expectation is that the equivalent EcoHomes entry level will rise in the code.鈥�

The code has also been delayed because of legal wrangling between the government and the BRE over ownership of EcoHomes. BRE earns money by assessing and rating developments using EcoHomes and BREEAM. If the government was to base the code on EcoHomes it might have to be taken out of BRE hands and run by government.

  • This week 黑洞社区 has examined the problems surrounding the late implementation of Part L of the 黑洞社区 Regulations, which deals with the energy performance of buildings.
  • The industry has long complained of delays in the release of guidance and calculation methods.

    Cooper responded that the government had made efforts to help the industry through the changes to Part L.

    She said: 鈥淭he draft approved documents were published in September to give the industry as much time as possible to prepare for implementation. The technical content of the final documents will be published by the end of the year and they are not expected to be significantly different to the draft.鈥�

    She added that the Part L debate had shown that the industry was committed to playing its part in tackling climate change. She said: 鈥淎chieving a 40% improvement in the energy efficiency of new buildings is a major task and I welcome the industry鈥檚 commitment to this challenge.鈥�