Let me start by saying how delighted I am to be here today for this conference, hosted by the Energy Saving Trust and the Home Builders Federation.
I am extremely pleased to see that the focus of today’s conference is on what we can learn from abroad, and how we can share best practice.
There is, in my view, no substitute for learning from the challenges and experiences of other markets.
It reminds me of the 1932 headline, attributed to The Times newspaper’s international affairs page, that read: “heavy fog in the channel: continent of Europe cut off”
Our famous insularity as a nation, I am glad to say, is somewhat diluted today…
Taking place just a few hours after the Chancellor has delivered a Budget with such a distinctly green hue, the timing of today’s conference could also not be better.
It is astonishing to see how quickly the climate change agenda has assumed a newfound primacy in today’s political narrative. It is now, I believe, the prism through which all public policy is being judged.
On top of yesterday’s announcements by the Chancellor, this month has seen the EU pledge to secure a 20 per cent cut in CO2 emissions by 2020.
It has also seen the publication of a Climate Change Bill that promises to make Britain the first country in the world to set legally binding limits on its carbon pollution.
“March 2007”, the Guardian proudly trumpets “will be seen to be the month during which the politics of climate change finally began to get serious”.
Frankly I cannot recall anything which has risen up the political agenda or seeped into the public consiousness so quickly. When I started my role at the HBF it was barely on the radar screen.
NO one can doubt that the politics of climate change is now serious, and the home building industry, as I will outline today, is equally serious about playing its part.
Where it all started: Scandinavia
So where did this all start? How did the industry decide that it had a role to play? Where are we now?
Last September, Housing Minister Yvette Cooper invited me on a trip to Holland, Denmark and Sweden to assess what is being done on the continent of Europe.
It was an extremely useful trip to undertake, and it personally gave me a fascinating insight as to how other countries are working to provide solutions to sustainability issues and challenges.
I am delighted that we will be hearing later from Henrik Svanqvust [pro: HENRIK SVANK-VURST] from Scanska, some of whose very interesting work we saw on our trip.
The UK housing market is, of course, different to those of our European partners in some ways, and not everything we saw could simply be replicated here.
Nor do the Scandinavian countries we visited hold a monopoly of wisdom on all things sustainable, as I am sure Henrik will agree. We can learn lessons from all over the world.
What it did reinforce to me, however, is the fact that the private sector – Britain’s home building industry – can change, can adapt, can innovate, can lead…
In fact, that is precisely what it does best. What it needs is the right framework within which to deliver.
The challenge
On our return to the UK, Yvette Cooper issued a very stretching challenge: to meet and beat Scandinavian standards within a decade.
To the surprise of many we welcomed it.
A few weeks later, presenting his pre-Budget statement to the country, the Chancellor committed Britain to becoming the first country in the world to build all new homes to zero-carbon standards by 2016.
Again, we welcomed it.
Why – not because I am an environmental expert, far from it - I don’t know which direction solar winds should be blowing, or whether the arctic tides are out of kilter.
What I do know, however, is that the environmental agenda is here, and it’s here to stay. Indeed, as I said earlier nothing in my lifetime has risen to prominence so quickly.
We can all see the three main political parties grappling to champion the environment; we can all see other business sectors moving swiftly to establish their green credentials. These things don’t happen in a vacuum: there are votes to be won, there are markets to be secured. Attitudes are shifting.
For me, therefore, the choice was simple.
We could cover our heads with our hands, ignoring clear realities, and mutter darkly that all change is futile…or we could approach the Government, putting forward our own positive and business-friendly ideas to shape a more effective policy and regulatory framework within which to achieve the twin aims of increased housing output and higher environmental standards
You know which one we took.
A business-friendly framework
In putting forward our case to Government, we stressed five key points:
Firstly - we need an approach that encompasses all stakeholders - from regulators to suppliers, from NGOs to utility companies. No one sector can deliver this alone.
Secondly - targets need to be expressed as clearly and simply as possible - we all need to agree what we are measuring so that we can understand what success is.
Thirdly - and perhaps most strongly of all - once those parameters are in place, we need the Government to clear the pitch and let the industry deliver. No tinkering, no selection of product winners, no moving goal posts.
Very importantly our customers need to be with us. It ill-behoves any home builder to ignore the tastes and wishes of customers – not least ones who can always invest in the second hand market.
And last but certainly not least we stressed the need to avoid a free for all of target making – to avoid allowing every local authority to devise its own way of saving the planet.
Forging progress
Three months on, I think we have collectively made a strong start although I do have one major concern which I shall return to in a moment.
On the positive side however The Government has launched, and now concluded, a consultation – Building a greener future – that sets out a clear end target with identifiable Code Level targets at regular intervals on the way.
Within weeks of the Government announcement’s zero-carbon homes announcement, the HBF had convened a stakeholder roundtable summit, bringing together everyone who has a stake in the debate.
In a room of over fifty people representing the fullest range of interests, everyone agreed that achieving carbon-zero homes in the next ten years is a tough ask, but most importantly no-one said that it could not be done.
As a direct result of the Summit, the HBF and the Government have convened a Task Force bringing together a number of bodies, co-chaired by Yvette Cooper and me. The Task Force has held its inaugural meeting, during which we agreed areas of responsibility and agreed to undertake a number of scoping exercises. We meet again in a few days’ time.
It is, of course, extremely early days, but I am confident that overall we are moving steadily in the right direction.
Our task is, of course, to sustain the forward momentum within the parameters set out in our framework which is so central to our ability to deliver.
And so to my major concern. We can already see that different nations and regions - the Welsh Assembly Government and South West Regional Assembly in particular - are proposing their own different standards and timetables for delivering zero-carbon homes.
I have no doubt that local authorities have similar plans and I am already hearing tales from members of authorities demanding code levels that we cannot yet deliver.
While no-one can criticise their enthusiasm for the job, with nine Government Office Regions and over 350 different local authorities, we have a recipe for unprecedented complexity and chaos.
Having to conform to a multiplicity of targets in different locations, I believe, will pose a very real risk to our ability to increase housing output. Indeed it could lead
to output declining in the short term.
The point is that we do not know how to achieve zero-carbon standards in any kind of meaningful volume. A proliferation of targets will harm our ability to innovate, test, prove and deliver in the numbers that we need to.
We need to urge caution, counsel against misguided initiatives, and keep a focus on the bigger picture.
Industry reaction
Setting aside this major concern overall we are seeing an enormously positive industry reaction to the goal of building all new homes to zero-carbon standards within a decade.
There is simply no doubt that all parts of the industry are rising to the challenge.
It is worth emphasising at this point that the zero-carbon target does not favour the major home building companies at the expense of smaller ones. Far from it.
In a process where capacity and volume pose major issues, smaller developers have the ability to potentially move faster and innovate quicker if they wish.
For those that do not want to move as rapidly, they have the reassurance of knowing that the larger players, suppliers and energy companies have little choice but to invest in new technology and find solutions.
The whole industry, of course, will benefit from the totality of their knowledge.
Just as they did when Part E of the Building Regulations was introduced. Some of the largest home builders contributed funding to find an alternative solution to mandatory sound testing.
I have absolutely no doubt that every home builder in the country could have benefited as a result.
Nor, I believe, should we be concerned that the homes of the future will look so radically different to the homes of today that we will be building houses that would not look out of place on Planet Zog.
Let us not forget that the homes our forbears built a hundred years ago were six times less energy efficient than the homes of today. Achieving zero-carbon performance standards will require less of an advance that achieved to date.
Conclusion
Finally, let me just state that HBF’s approach to the climate change agenda, I hope, exemplifies a changing Federation, representing an evolving industry.
As I said when I took on the role of HBF’s Executive Chairman a little over a year ago, we are most effective when we have a seat at the table, talking to Government; we are most effective when we are proposing policy solutions as well as identifying policy problems.
I believe that we have a radically stronger and more constructive relationship now with Government.
It is why I am delighted that Angela Smith, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at Communities and Local Government, is here to talk to address us today as well.
Mrs Smith, as you know, has responsibility for building regulations within her Department. Building regulations will, of course, play a critical role in the delivery of zero-carbon homes.
HBF has a working group looking at the reform of building regulations, and we are very keen to work with Mrs Smith and her officials to see how building regulations can become more relevant and appropriate to the task they were created to undertake.
It leaves me with little more to do than to thank you for your time, and to hand over to Mrs Smith