Planning and building regulations

Perceived barrier to sustainable homes: Current planning and building regulations do not help to deliver sustainable homes.

The Sustainable and Secure Buildings Bill received Royal Assent on 16 September 2004 giving the government new powers to tackle the harmful effect that buildings have on the environment.

Receiving Royal Assent means that the Bill is now an Act of Parliament and is enforceable as law. The new Act has been a key objective of the One Million Sustainable Homes (OMSH) campaign.

The success of this Act has huge implications for sustainable homes. It will enable the building regulations - the core regulatory mechanism that defines how houses are built and refurbished - to address environmental issues, beyond energy, for the first time.

Having fought long and hard to push the Bill through parliament, WWF can now legitimately claim to have helped change the law governing how all buildings - commercial and residential - are developed. The government will now have the power to make regulations with the needs of sustainability in mind - something which has previously not been possible. As a result we will move a step closer to the OMSH campaign goal: to move sustainable homes from the margins to the mainstream of the UK's housing sector.

Having achieved this first step, WWF is calling for action to be taken to ensure that these new powers are used effectively. This can only be acheived by reviewing and upgrading building regulations as soon as possible.

In parallel with these exciting developments in Westminster, WWF has also been heavily involved, as the only NGO, with the government's Sustainable Buildings Task Group. The Task Group has proposed the introduction of a new Code for Sustainable Buildings which builds upon the BREEAM/EcoHomes standard. The government has reacted positively to this proposal and WWF is now working hard to ensure that the Code becomes a nationally recognised standard to which all new developments should adhere.

Top | Data protection | Copyright | Feedback