NewsArticle-29-10-2009

The industry body representing Scotland’s home builders has called for “breathing space” on the implementation of new building standards which it says will only marginally reduce Scotland’s overall carbon footprint and may, in the process, delay the provision of essential new housing to meet both private and social needs.

With new homes already leading the way in this area, generating over 60% less CO2 emissions than older properties¹ (the equivalent of driving 10,000 miles a year less per household), Jonathan Fair, Chief Executive of Homes for Scotland(right), whose members together build 95% of new homes built for sale each year, as well as an increasingly significant proportion of affordable housing output, said:

“According to the Scottish Government’s own research, the new home building industry is currently achieving very high standards and has already made significant progress toward low carbon policy targets in comparison to almost all other industry sectors. 

"Whilst we remain fully supportive of the sustainability agenda, the Scottish Government must take account of the dramatic impact the credit crunch has had on our industry.  Though early signs of stability in the market may now be appearing, we are by no means in recovery mode and will, for the foreseeable future, simply be focusing on re-growing baseline supply and meeting consumers’ expressed core needs in a trading environment where affordability, in its widest sense, is significantly constrained.

“At present, most builders are still to construct houses which comply with even the current 2007 regulations.  As such, we have yet to test what impact these proposed extra costs, which are predicted to add approximately £3000 - £8000 on to every new home, will have not only on sales but also entire project viability.  

“It has yet to be proven whether consumers are willing to incur a premium for low carbon living or ‘bolt-on renewables’ which seem to offer little in the way of pay back, may prove difficult to understand and operate, or are untried with regards to long term performance and maintenance.  Property valuations undertaken for mortgage lenders confirm the view being taken that energy saving equipment at present does not add value to the property. 

“It is simply not possible, therefore, for the industry to absorb costs of this magnitude at present, particularly given the ever expanding list of developer contributions towards education, affordable housing and the like which are still being placed upon our members by Local Authorities.”

Given the fact that annual new build supply is likely to remain constrained below 1% of the existing built environment for a considerable time to come, Fair called for much greater emphasis to be placed on systematically improving the carbon performance and energy efficiency of existing dwellings and mooted a potential alternative strategy:

“There may be merit in exploring with the industry an approach whereby rather than a home builder incurring very high costs to achieve a marginal improvement in limited new build stock, they contribute towards the improvement of existing housing stock in the immediate area where more efficient and easy to deliver carbon emission reductions can be achieved. This would also assist the Scottish Government in the realisation of its overall carbon emission reduction targets across the whole of the residential built environment, to even better or quicker standards, with much less significant per unit costs.”

Ends

Enquiries to:  

Jennifer Kennedy, Homes for Scotland – 0131 455 8350 

Notes to Editors:

1.  Comparison of the level of CO2 emissions from buildings built in 1990 and 2008” (BRE)

2.  Click here to read Homes for Scotland's response to the Scottish Government's Building Standards consultation on its new proposals.

3.  Homes for Scotland represents the country’s home building industry which, prior to the onset of the credit crunch,:

• was the largest source of private investment in Scotland and the largest user of the planning system
• built 20,000 new homes, contributed £6bn to the economy and directly impacted the employment of 100,000 people (2007 figures)

With half the industry's directly employed jobs already lost and much new development across the country still effectively on hold, Scottish new build housing output has now plummeted.  This is having far-reaching and long-term social and economic consequences.  Browse this website for further market commentary and information on the action and support Homes for Scotland is calling on from both the UK and Scottish Governments.