Wednesday 13 December 2006

The Code will address issues such as energy efficiency and use of renewable energy, water use, ecology, use of materials and waste generation, and it will form the basis of future mandatory Building Regulations.

Paul King, Director of Campaigns at WWF said: "The Code sends the right signal - loud and clear - for house builders to put zero carbon development at the top of their agenda. Zero carbon new homes are critical in achieving the government's target to cut CO₂ by at least 60% by 2050. Homes built from today onwards will represent one-third of the total housing stock by that date.

"The Code demonstrates a real commitment by this government to develop sustainable homes and reinforces the move made by Gordon Brown last week to make all new homes zero carbon within ten years."

For the Code to be effective, WWF believes the Government should require mandatory assessment of all new homes against the Code, and also extend the rating to existing homes.

WWF and BRE (Building Research Establishment) have also been working closely with partners to produce Regional Sustainability Checklists for Developments, directly complementing the Code, and building on the successful model developed in the South East by SEEDA. The tool aims to provide a common framework of sustainability issues to be considered by planners and developers, tailored to regional concerns and policies.

Finally, WWF has once again joined forces with Insight Investment (part of HBOS, one of the biggest institutional investors in house building) and the Housing Corporation (which builds over 37,000 new homes a year) to launch a new house builder sustainability benchmarking initiative. Two previous sustainability benchmarking projects have helped investment managers, public sector clients and government to engage house builders on issues of sustainability.