The study showed that the target of all new properties to be carbon neutral by 2016 would not be met, with the NHF suggesting that only 2 per cent of privately built new homes currently met the minimum criteria.
David Orr, chief executive at the NHF, said: “It’s time that ministers locked private developers into the same timetable as housing associations.
Currently private developers are not being compelled to meet minimum standards on greenhouse gas emission at all.”
A spokesperson at the Communities and Local Government admitted the private sector needed to improve its efforts. “All homes will be required to be zero carbon by 2016 and we are introducing legally binding regulations on the private sector,” she said.
“There is a strong body of opinion in the private sector that they need to do more.”
However, Harry Katz, principal at Norwest Consultants, said: “It is a load of green-wash. All homes carbon neutral in nine years time? Will all homes have indoor toilets, be sanitary, free from damp and have decent, affordable heating?
When that is achieved perhaps we can start to think of the other nonsense.
Carbon neutral is a great catchphrase, but what in exact detail does it mean and how is it to be measured?”
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