Tough talking

The government loves to wheel out the phrase ‘tough green standards’ when talking about new developments. But does that mean anything?

Yesterday, housing minister John Healey unveiled new ‘tough green standards’ for local authorities to demand from new developments.

Everyone seems reasonably happy with the idea of a ‘green planning rulebook’ formed from changes to three planning policy statements on Climate Change, Natural Environment and Coastal Change. The Town and Country Planning Association even went so far as to call it ‘historic’.

But what irritated some of the developers I spoke to was the phrase ‘tough green standards’. It’s something the government likes to wheel out every so often to show they are really cracking down on those naughty developers.

‘Saying that immediately sets up a confrontation,’ said a figure at one construction firm. ‘It suggests that they are fighting us, and that we’re unwilling to comply.’

Even if this is just a rather brusque way of saying the government is keen for this country to lead the way on environmental issues, it still seems rather empty. The last time I received a press release from the Communities and Local Government department about ‘tough green standards’, it was about eco-towns, which were supposed to be flagship, pioneering examples of sustainable communities.

Back then, reading that press release made me rather grumpy as the towns won’t really meet much tougher standards than normal developments of social housing are supposed to at the moment. So reading the phrase again makes me wonder if we’re in an episode of The Apprentice, where everyone talks tough, but has little to show for it.

Of course, many of the new requirements are good: they require councils to encourage low-carbon and renewable energy on new developments, although as our story on biomass boilers showed last week, these requirements aren’t always entirely easy to deliver upon.

Developers tell me that what the sector really needs is joined-up policies for housing, energy and infrastructure which mean they have a sporting chance of creating sustainable communities, not tough talking.