Homes must have green credentials
Sep 28 2007 by Kenneth Hunt, The Journal
THE priority the Government places on housing and development has led to a raft of initiatives that will affect everyone in the industry.
We’ve had the White Paper, Planning for a Sustainable Future, promising “an extensive and broad-ranging programme of reform” to be implemented by 2009.
It promises to streamline the planning system on infrastructure projects by rationalising the different consent regimes covering transport, highways, gas, electricity and planning.
It proposes to set up an independent infrastructure planning commission that could make decisions within nine months on projects of national significance.
The White Paper also announced the Government’s commitment to make the construction industry play its part in combating climate change by making new homes carbon neutral.
The themes in the White Paper have been expanded with various Government initiatives throughout the year.
One of the most significant is the Housing and Planning Delivery Grant (HPDG), which will provide councils with incentives to maximise the supply of building land in their areas and speed the delivery of new housing. It’s part of the Government’s drive to build 240,000 homes a year to meet its target of providing an extra three million homes by 2020 as set out in the Housing Green Paper published last July.
A total of £500m is being made available to reward successful councils. Under the scheme, local authorities will be asked to “identify at least five years’ worth of sites ready for housing and a further 10 years’ worth for future development”.
Concern for the environment is at the heart of the new housebuilding drive, with the emphasis on providing green homes on brownfield sites.
The Government has already identified 750 major brownfield sites which are being assessed for development suitability and councils are being encouraged to identify more.
Alongside this sudden flurry to encourage development there is also a desire to monitor performance, so the Office of Fair Trading is now conducting a major study on the housebuilding industry.
The OFT will examine whether suitable development land is effectively being brought through for planning approval and whether land with approval is then being used effectively to build homes.
Its report is due next year. By then, it’s likely there will be yet more initiatives to digest, so there’s likely to be yet more change.
Kenneth Hunt is a senior partner at Hunt Kidd
