Rouse calls for production line approach to eco schemes

Jon Rouse, chief executive of the Housing Corporation, has criticised exemplar sustainable developments for failing to offer the industry repeatable designs.

His comments come as the UK is fighting to stave off legal action from the EU for having missed the deadline for implementing the Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings.

Rouse said projects such as zero fossil energy housing scheme BedZED in Sutton, offered too lofty an ideal for everyday construction projects to emulate.

At last week's Ecobuild conference in London, Rouse called for Z-squared, the Foster and Partners-designed follow-up to BedZED planned for the Thames Gateway, to be "done at a cost differential that is not insurmountable".

Rouse said that regulations would have to play a key part in bringing sustainable design into the mainstream.

But the UK has missed the January deadline EU member states were given for implementing one of the latest regulations, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. An ODPM spokesman confirmed that the EU had begun legal proceedings against the UK, which could result in a fine.

The spokesman said the ODPM was attempting to prove it would comply with the directive within the three-year period allowed by the EU. He said his office would announce a timetable setting out gradual implementation shortly.

He said: "The directive came into force in January but members have three years to implement it. It will be passed in the UK in different bits of legislation at different times. We will notify the EC when we announce the timetable for implementation, which will quite possibly happen this month."

The directive requires all buildings to have a certificate rating them on energy efficiency. The ODPM said a key facet of the legislation, home information packs, would be in force by 1 June 2007. From then, anyone selling a house will have to produce the pack, which will detail the energy performance of the home for the buyer.

Isabel McAllister, associate director of sustainability at Cyril Sweett, backed Rouse. She said it was time to move from "expensive one-offs" to mainstreaming sustainable design and procurement.

She suggested rather than targeting BedZED's zero fossil fuel consumption, developments could target, for example, 20% lower than average consumption.