MPs call for tighter green building rules

The Environmental Audit Committee has called for the adoption of tighter environmental standards for construction firms

Construction firms looking to profit from the government's house building plans should be forced to change their focus from rapid development to slower, greener building projects, according to a report out today from the Environmental Audit Committee.

The cross-party committee of MPs analysed government proposals to build three million new homes by 2020 and concluded that despite its high-profile commitment to eco-towns, the government's policy continues to favour building more homes over minimising their carbon impact.

The committee report, entitled Greener Homes for the Future? An environmental analysis of the Government’s house-building plans, calls for the adoption of tighter environmental standards for construction firms.

They include: a requirement for all large developments from 2016 to meet the same environmental tests as the flagship eco-towns; an insistence that green infrastructure best practices, such as access to public transport where appropriate, apply to all new developments; and making mandatory more aspects of the government's voluntary Code for Sustainable Homes by 2010.

The report also urges Gordon Brown to downgrade the government's target of building three million new homes by 2020 and offer fresh reassurances that green belt land will not be eaten into.

Committee chairman Tim Yeo said that the recent decline in the property market had given the government the chance to reassess its house-building strategy.

"This is an opportunity for the government to place environmental concerns at the heart both of targets and planning regulations for new housing," he said.