» News » Blogs

With the Government at last getting serious about moving towards zero carbon buildings, the construction industry has also taken a positive step forward with the formation of the UK Green Building Council and the appointment of WWF’s Paul King as its new Chief Executive.  

Even a year ago it would have been unimaginable that companies such as Barratt Homes, Hanson and British Land would have committed themselves so publicly to a zero carbon future, but they have signed up as founder members of the new group.  Clearly recent events such as the publication of the Stern Report on the economic impact of climate change, and the raft of new regulatory measures announced before Christmas are having an effect. 

The Chairman of the UKGBC is Peter Rogers, Director of Stanhope and brother to Lord Rogers, and he displayed his impatience to get on with the job at the recent launch at the Ecobuild conference – ‘Change would have to be driven by the industry, as government legislation would take too long’.

Well maybe.  It’s great to see the construction industry (or at least its flashier end) taking a lead at last, but even a cursory glance around current construction sites shows how far the industry as a whole has still to go.  The volume house building industry in particular has a huge learning curve ahead.  Walk onto any housing site around Cambridge and you will see that innovation in environmentally efficient houses is being driven only by two sectors - Housing Associations and small niche developers, often architects acting as developers themselves. 

A classic example is the Arbury Park development on site on the northern fringe of Cambridge, a development of 700 market and 200 affordable homes being promoted by Gallagher Estates.  The affordable homes are being built to within a couple of points of the Ecohomes ‘Excellent’ standard, and include 32 houses on land previously owned by Cambridge City Council which are being fitted with ground sourced heat pumps thanks to a £4,000 per house subsidy from the Council.  But what of the private sector?

In spite of the existence of a £130,000 ‘innovation fund’ set up by Gallaghers as part of the Section 106 Agreement, none of the companies building the market housing is going beyond the requirement in the planning permission to build to the Ecohomes ‘Good’ standard, and none have so far taken advantage of the innovation fund.  No sign of the industry taking a lead here.

The only examples of innovation from the private sector seem to come from small developers, often architects developing their own sites from a personal commitment to green building or out of frustration from the low aspirations of the volume market.  Two excellent recent examples in Cambridge are the houses by Nicholas Ray Associates on Covent Garden, and the refurbished office with two flats above on Victoria Road by AC Architects.  Both these development come close to the Holy Grail of carbon neutrality.

If the UK Green Building Council is to make any impact it will have to find ways of bringing these isolated examples of good practice into the mainstream of the volume house builders.  Moreover it will have to learn from the public and voluntary sectors which so far have been showing the way to a greener future on larger housing sites.  Although it’s good to see the industry waking up at last, one can’t help feeling that it will still be regulatory changes and ultimately customer demand that will be the real motivators for change in the construction industry as a whole.

Peter Studdert
Director of Sustainable Communities
Cambridgeshire Horizons