Green Housing Initiative

Last week at workinproperty HQ we had words about the timetable the government had put forward for house builders to deliver zero carbon houses. The green measures announced by Ruth Kelly included for all new houses to be zero carbon by 2016. Our main contention was that this was too little too late. Why Wait? We felt that house builders were capable of undertaking such developments much sooner.

To the credit of Ms Kelly, a Government backed initiative was launched yesterday with the assistance with English Partnerships.

The Carbon Challenge will require developments 'to meet the second highest specification (Level 5) of the government’s recently published Regional Development Agencies, private developers, Local Authorities & Housing Associations will all be encouraged to nominate their sites.

Trevor Beattie, the Director at English Partnerships responsible for delivering the Challenge, said, “Climate change is with us now – so now is the time to act.." Quite Rght!

It is anticipated that work will start on the various sites in the summer of 2008, and valuable lessons will hopefully be learnt for future developments.

What was not made clear in yesterday's announcement is what the prize will be for the winner of the Challenge.. House share with Ruth Kelly......