Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity and the platform to put the industry’s views forward.
I particularly welcome your willingness, Secretary of State, to work in partnership with the HBF in this important area. It marks, I hope, a strengthened and enhanced relationship between the Government and the industry – one in which the Minister for Housing and Planning, Yvette Cooper, has played an important role. I hope we can build on this, and other areas of policy in the future.
Let me state from the outset that we welcome the challenge made by the Chancellor last week to build all new homes to carbon-zero standards within ten years.
We much look forward to closely examining the detail of the package you have announced today and contributing fully to the consultation exercise.
We acknowledge the role that the industry can and must play in delivering a more sustainable environmental future for this country, and we want to make sure we get the detail right for all stakeholders.
As the Secretary of State has said, while new homes may add to the overall stock of homes by less than one per cent a year, in thirty years’ time, the total “new” stock will represent a significant proportion of housing. We know that new homes can - over time - bring large cumulative benefits.
The Government has set a challenging and ambitious target, and we should not forget that this target rides alongside the existing objective of supplying the 200,000 new homes a year that this country so desperately needs.
I am pleased that the industry has managed to increase significantly the rate of home building in the last few years, although we need to be able to increase this much further if we are to meet demand.
It is important to note that if we get the framework right, greater sustainability and commercial success are not mutually exclusive. They are in fact - and should be - self-sustaining.
In the autumn, alongside Paul and John who sit with me here, I accompanied Yvette Cooper, the Minister for Housing and Planning, on a trip to Scandinavia and Hollan to see the sustainability standards being reached in parts of the continent.
On our return, I put forward my vision that sets out the shortest and most effective route to achieving zero-carbon homes in this country.
i) Firstly, we need an approach that encompasses all stakeholders - from regulators to suppliers, from NGOs to utility companies.
The point is this: home builders alone cannot deliver carbon-zero homes in sufficient quantity. Many others will in practice be enablers.
So to succeed, we need to work in conjunction with everyone and every group that has a stake in the issue, not least the people with whom I share this platform.
ii) 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.
On this subject, we need to help manage the friction between Government and local authorities on target-setting. I appreciate the drive towards localism in many areas of Government, but this target is tough enough as it is, and we will be far less effective in delivering progress if we are attempting to conform to a multitude of different targets.
iii) The next important point involves the Government doing something that Governments of all political colours have perhaps traditionally found a little hard to do: standing back
The industry needs the space to do what it does best – change, adapt and innovate.
The Government can monitor progress, and call us to regular account, but it must avoid the temptation to tinker, to interfere, to intervene unnecessarily.
In saying this, I make a plea: too many interim targets risk giving shorter-term solutions a primacy over longer-term goals. We need to focus our energies on the overall destination, not the stops on the way.
And above all, we need certainty and predictability to guide the decisions made in the board rooms of home building companies and their suppliers throughout the country.
iv) Finally, of course, and most importantly, our customers need to be with us.
Changes and innovations need to be practical and desirable. While we know that consumer opinions are steadily shifting as the climate change agenda seeps into public consciousness, we must retain the same customer focus that has been delivering high customer satisfaction levels in recent years.
This, I believe, sets out the framework for success, the parameters for delivery.
In the New Year, the Home Builders Federation will be convening a stakeholder roundtable which Yvette Cooper has kindly agreed to co-Chair with me.
This roundtable event will be the first tangible step in working out exactly where we need to be and, just as importantly, how to do it.
It is about the industry taking a lead, defining its role and working with partners.
I am delighted that, just yesterday, the National Centre for Excellence in Housing is putting forward a significant amount of money to fund further work into carbon neutrality.
It is a direct response to the Chancellor’s statement last week, and an early indication of the industry’s determination to find and develop solutions.
I am confident more funding in this area will come forward.
No-one should underestimate the scale of the challenge, but, by acting now, we can deliver more new homes and do so in a way that makes a real contribution to tackling climate change
The opportunity is a clear one: instead of being part of the problem, home building can be a leading and integral part of the solution.
The key to realising this aim is a simple one; it is about getting the detail of the framework right.