Party conference season kicked off with an attack on developers – but is the government confused about its green message?
The start of the party conference season this week gave the Liberal Democrats the rare chance to take centre stage, and local government minister Andrew Stunell wasted no time in engaging in the currently popular sport of attacking developers. This time, however, it wasn’t shoebox-size bedrooms or the urge to concrete over the countryside that came under fire, but the sector’s green credentials and appetite for change.
“The built environment contributes almost half of Britain’s carbon emissions each year,” Stunell proclaimed - a fact, you’ll be pleased to hear, that he plans to tackle in the next review of the Building Regulations. That should sort it. Then, referring to an obscure Joseph Rowntree Foundation report that was particularly damning of the sector, he added that “many processes and cultures within the industry and its supply chain need to change if Zero Carbon Homes is to be more than an empty slogan”. And bang - hell hath no fury like an industry scorned.
Stunell’s political grandstanding was unequivocal: ‘It is Liberal Democrat ministers who are delivering on our promise of constructing a greener built environment’
The problem is that Stunell fails to put the industry’s record in a fair context. When he says, “We either make our buildings more sustainable or we will lose our battle with climate change”, it is hardly a revelation. Progress might not have been as good as it could have been, but for every Rowntree-style report there is a bucket-load of innovation, creativity, suites of green products, cultural change and new ways of working.
You also can’t help wondering what the Tories must have been feeling. While Stunell attacked housebuilders for failing to meet their green targets, his political grandstanding was unequivocal: “It is Liberal Democrat ministers who are delivering on our promise of constructing a greener built environment,” he said. So does Tory housing minister Grant Shapps not think the same as Stunell? Perhaps the government needs a little help communicating what it thinks it means to be green …
The big picture - in forensic detail
Yesterday, Building launched select findings from its CEO State of the Nation White Paper at the inaugural CEO Summit at the Savoy Hotel, attended by more than 70 industry leaders. The document includes qualitative data compiled from interviews with dozens of CEOs and is accompanied by exclusive contract and regional data from Barbour ABI and analysis from our assistant editor, Will Hurst. The paper assesses the impact of factors such as the economy, government policy and technology on the built environment. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that consolidation has emerged as a key concern and that international growth is now considered the route to growth - albeit with many looking to western Europe.
Surprisingly, 81% of the CEOs interviewed endorsed the principle of government spending cuts, even though a little over a third believed that they had gone too far. The report also provides detailed assessment of the government’s construction policy and the outlook for the next three years. Click here for a summary of the white paper, while coverage of the CEO Summit is online and in next week’s magazine. You will be able to download the full report at Building.co.uk from next week.
Tom Broughton, brand director
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