The waiting game

The housing sector is waiting very eagerly for the definition of zero-carbon, and apparently it’s due before the Parliamentary recess starts. I spoke to housing minister Grant Shapps this morning, who told me that the Communities and Local Government department is ‘still working on it’, but that the industry wants a little bit more time before the definition is set in stone.

He said: ‘The industry seems to want more time, and I don’t want to force their hand. But we are working on it as quickly as possible, and it will come out this side of the recess.’

I find it a little hard to believe that anyone in the industry can really want any more time on something which has taken the best part of two years to define. Most of the sector figures I have spoken to are longing to find out the standards new homes will have to meet from 2016, even if they are a little wary of what the definition will entail.

Even Mr Shapps himself has previously said that the industry has been kept waiting for far too long to learn about standards which they’ll need to conform to in just six years’ time.

The only thing that most people seem to want to delay is the proposed closure of the Zero Carbon Hub, the body tasked with delivering the move to carbon neutral new build. Mr Shapps has said he plans to stop the Hub’s £500,000 subsidy once the definition is agreed. Some figures in the sector are worried that this will make implanting zero carbon standards trickier, and that tensions between environmental groups could rise without the government-industry mediation that the Hub currently provides.

There are three and a half weeks left until Parliament breaks for the summer holidays, so it will be very interesting to see how close to the wire the minister decides to push this announcement.