Up to £15,000 is on offer as an incentive for buyers to invest in environmentally friendly property. The government hopes that the financial benefits will be enough to sell the homes, but builders have warned that few are likely to benefit.
According to rules suggested in the Budget Report, buyers of new homes costing less than £500,000 will not have to pay any land tax or Stamp Duty, though buyers of second-hand zero carbon homes will not qualify for the relief.
The government is hoping that by 2016 all new homes will be built to zero carbon standards, yet the Treasury has yet to provide an exact definition of what makes a zero carbon home.
The Budget ‘impact assessment’, published in March claimed that a zero carbon home was one that did not consume fossil fuels for heat or power, was highly insulated and used renewable energy. Heat and power technologies include ground source heat pumps, photovoltaic cells, solar water heaters and wind turbines.
Builders hope for a flexible definition of the term ‘zero carbon’ as a spokesman for the Homebuilders’ Federation said he could not think of a single development right now that would qualify for the relief. The Treasury says it will have agreed a more detailed definition by the end of November.
Paul Ellis, chief executive of Ecology Building Society, said: “This is a move in the right direction but we need to see more definition of zero carbon. This is a great headline grabber but the amount of input is limited.”
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