Published: 23 May 2006
Carbon Neutral Development
Environment Secretary David Miliband and Housing Minister Yvette Cooper have unveil the Government's intention to set out a long term ambition for low carbon and carbon neutral development in keynote speeches to the Green Alliance.
Yvette Cooper has announced the second phase of the Design for Manufacture competition to challenge developers to deliver innovative low cost and low carbon housing.
The first phase set tough design challenges for the £60,000 homes.
The new phase will be run by English Partnerships on six new sites and will create small scale eco-community developments rather than individual homes.
The challenge to developers will be to deliver either low-carbon or carbon neutral affordable homes.
The new competition aims to produce demonstration eco-community schemes that will provide the evidence base for the Government to raise the bar and set more challenging environmental standards for all housing developments in future. Full details of the new competition will be announced this summer.
The speeches set out Minister's intentions to use building regulations, the Code for Sustainable Homes and the forthcoming Planning Policy Statement on Climate Change to support the long term direction of travel towards low carbon and then carbon neutral development.
Yvette Cooper also announced a new feasibility study which will explore the scope to make the Thames Gateway a low carbon development area within the next decade, and then to move towards carbon neutrality.
The study will look at how this can be achieved in a way that is cost effective, supports the 120,000 new homes and 180,000 new jobs being delivered, and safeguards existing jobs and communities as well.
The Government wants to use the opportunity of building new homes to improve environmental standards and support innovative environmental technologies to help to tackle carbon emissions in new and existing homes.
The Government is also looking at ways to achieve significant carbon savings through greater action by local authorities to match the achievements of those currently leading the way as part of proposals for local government reform to be set out later this year.
Full details of the next phase of the Design for Manufacture competition will be set out later this summer.
Further information
Thames Gateway
Design for Manufacture
Green Alliance
English Partnerships
Code for Sustainable Homes
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