More needs to be done to reach carbon-neutral targets

The government target that all new homes should be carbon neutral by 2016 may not be achievable, according to an ongoing poll.

64% of respondents to the house-builder.co.uk poll say the target won’t be met, suggesting much more needs to be done if carbon neutral housing is to be built on a large scale.

Dave Mitchell, technical director for the Home Builders’ Federation (HBF) said: “It’s not impossible to make a home carbon neutral now, but if you ask me to do it on a plot for 200; that would be (economically impossible).”

A report by the HBF found that the number of new homes with solar panels had increased by almost 25%, although the average carbon emission from new homes had also recently increased.

John Slaughter, director of external affairs at the HBF, said the industry needed more time: “There are areas of technology that we don’t know enough about and we’re not geared up to build 200,000 carbon neutral homes a year.

“No one’s doing them on a big scale. We need time to get things working.”

Making all new homes carbon neutral would not be good enough anyway, according to Darren Johnson, chair of the environment committee at the London Assembly. He said: “As well as requiring all new homes to be carbon neutral, a much more intensive effort is needed to improve the energy use of our existing homes.”

Chris Watts, a consultant with Green Balance, said home builders were “in general moving in the right way”. New building regulations and planning rules would ensure the pace of change accelerated.

Communities and Local Government minister Angela Smith said: “Buildings account for around half of the UK’s total carbon emissions. It is vital we take action to make them as sustainable and energy efficient as possible.”

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