Britain Needs More Energy Efficient Homes, Builders Tell the Govt
From Property Wire
The upcoming Budget must include measures to make Britain’s homes more energy efficient, boosting the construction industry and helping householders protect themselves against rising fuel bills, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).
In a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who delivers his Budget on 20 March, Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, says that by 2016 some nine million British households could be in fuel poverty.
‘We need action now to help get Britain building towards growth, and independent economists estimate that diverting funds into a massive public sector programme to improve the energy efficiency of Britain’s existing 26 million homes would boost GDP by 0.2%, create 130,000 jobs and help the government meet its own targets for cutting carbon emissions,’ the letter says.
‘We also want ministers to rethink the unrealistic timeline for zero carbon homes, which was set back in 2006 before the economic slump. Our own survey of smaller housing developers found that the proposals to change Part L of the Building Regulations in October this year could add more than £3,500 to the cost of building a new house. This will discourage even more developers from building new homes, further exacerbating the desperate housing shortage and locking low and middle income buyers out of the market,’ it points out.
