More than 200 businesses from the construction, property and renewable energy industries have urged the UK Chancellor George Osborne to reconsider his decision to scrap the zero carbon homes policy.
And they have warned that abandoning it “will have regressive impacts and be harmful to British industry.”
The Treasury unexpectedly axed the policy earlier this month. It was designed to ensure all new homes built from 2016 meet zero carbon standards – together with a sister policy that applied to all new non-residential buildings such as offices, schools and hospitals from 2019.
In an open letter to the Chancellor, senior leaders from 246 organisations – including the contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, housebuilders Willmott Dixon and HAB Housing, major developers Lendlease and Argent, product manufacturers Saint-Gobain and Tata Steel, the energy firm E.ON and the retailer Whitbread – have warned the policy U-turn has “undermined industry confidence in Government” and will “curtail investment in British innovation and manufacturing”.
Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, which coordinated the letter, said: “The speed and the stealth with which this administration has destroyed some of the long-term policies supporting the renewable and low carbon industries has been breath-taking.
“Our members and the wider industry are deeply concerned about how the Government’s sudden, regressive and arbitrary decision to scrap the long established zero carbon policy will impact their business and investment.
“This U-turn not only means our new buildings will be less energy efficient and more costly to run, but it comes at a time when the UK should be taking strong action on climate change ahead of the UN conference in Paris in December. We urge Government to reconsider its position for the sake of future confidence in the UK’s low carbon economy.”
The zero carbon homes policy aimed to dramatically reduce CO2 emissions from housing, which currently make up nearly a third of all the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, a figure which could rise to 55% by 2050.
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