Gordon Brown, who becomes Prime Minister in just under a week, has stated he aims to provide 200,000 homes a year and intends to make environmentally friendly homes a major part of that goal. Yet, the CML said that, with the housing shortage and affordability issues, it was unclear whether consumers would be prepared to pay a premium for ‘zero carbon’ homes.
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The CML added it was also not known when zero carbon homes might be built in significant numbers.
Bernard Clarke, communications manager for the CML, said: “Brown has set out particularly challenging goals in seeking to raise house building rates and to provide homes in a less environmentally damaging way. He has said that building ‘ecotowns’ is one way of resolving the conflict.
“On the face of it, however, increasing building rates does not sit comfortably alongside growing concern for the environment, and there may be some awkward policy conflicts to resolve, particularly in the short term. It will be many decades before we are able to build ‘eco-towns’ of zero carbon homes.”
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David Hollingworth, head of communications for London & Country, said: “It’s all a balancing act. Zero carbon homes will have to be affordable, as that’s where the weakest supply is. If the government took the view that it’s unfeasible, it would never try. I hope builders will rise to the challenges set.”
