By Vivienne Russell | 20 November 2013
Councils should be allowed to retain powers to ensure new housing built in their areas conforms to high sustainability standards of energy efficiency and water conservation, MPs said today.
The Commons environmental audit committee said plans to abolish the Code for Sustainable Homes was misguided and urged Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to ‘think again’.
Under the existing code, councils have discretion to introduce higher local standards on energy and water saving in new buildings. However, this flexibility will be removed when it is repealed and replaced with what MPs said was ‘a lowest-common-denominator national standard’.
Committee chair Joan Walley said: ‘The policy has been a big success in driving up home building standards, delivering local choice and supporting green exports.
‘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.’
According to the committee, the Code for Sustainable Homes has helped deliver incremental improvements in sustainable home building, embedding standards on energy use in building regulations. MPs are concerned that there is no replacement mechanism to drive sustainability in the future when the code is abolished.
‘Hundreds of thousands of homes have to be built in the coming decade. Smart energy and water-saving measures… must become the norm if we want our homes to be fit for the future,’ said Walley.
‘The Code for Sustainable Homes incentivises developers and designers to think about sustainability from the outset of a project and throughout the development process. It is a proven and flexible way of pushing up home building standards and should not be dropped.’
The Local Government Association said it shared the committee’s concerns.
‘Housing standards have become unnecessarily complex and confusing, partly as a result of additional rules promoted by the industry over the years,’ said Mike Jones, chair of the LGA’s environment and housing board.
‘The long overdue simplification of these rules could be achieved through a national framework but only if the range of standards support the development of quality housing and local needs without undermining or delaying local plans.’
