Sustainable Building
119. While there may be fewer unfit houses in Northern
Ireland than in England and Wales, Professor Woolley, Queen's
University Belfast told us that standards of sustainable housing
in Northern Ireland are lower than in the rest of the UK.[178]
120. Professor Woolley, defined sustainability in
the housing context as the environmental impact of new development,
the opportunities to improve energy efficiency, the need to reduce
damaging pollution, and improvements in the health of housing
occupants.[179] He
pointed out that current planning policy documents make no reference
to the need to encourage sustainability and energy efficiency,
and argued that greener standards are being largely ignored in
Northern Ireland. He considered there is presently insufficient
co-ordination between government and other agencies concerned
with energy efficiency. In his view, the main priority for social
housing was to make existing buildings more energy efficient,
but the result of the present unsatisfactory position is that
while programmes to introduce insulation do exist "Insufficient
research has been done to evaluate the success and effectiveness
of current insulation grants." [180]
121. Professor Woolley was concerned also that the
way housing associations develop social housing may make a sustainable
approach to construction difficult to follow "an increasing
number of housing associations use Design and Build packages from
developer builders as the main form of procurement of social and
special needs housing and this makes the incorporation of environmental
best practice extremely difficult." [181]
The Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA)
accepted that more could be done to incorporate greater energy
efficiency and sustainability into new housing and said that housing
associations would like to see more being done on this issue.
NIFHA pointed out that there was considerable flexibility in the
types of design and build contracts available.[182]
122. The Sustainable Buildings Task Group was set
up in Great Britain in October 2003 to advise the Government on
practical and cost effective measures to improve the sustainability
of buildings in the short and long term. Reporting in May 2004
the Group concluded that "a significant uplift in quality
is both possible and affordable" and that "an urgent
change is needed in the way our buildings are constructed and
maintained if we are to avoid the mistakes of the disastrous 1960s
building boom".[183]
Its report, Better Buildings - Better Lives, called on
the Government and the building industry to adopt a single national
Code for Sustainable Building.
123. The report was welcomed by the government, and
GB departments and the industry are co-operating to develop a
Code for Sustainable Building designed to set best practice standards
of energy efficiency, flood resilience, water consumption, greenhouse
gas emissions, and waste production.[184]
The Minister told us that these developments were being monitored
and that it would be a matter for the Department of the Environment
in Northern Ireland to implement such a code in consultation with
other departments. However, he gave no indication of whether any
consideration had been given to extending the Code to Northern
Ireland.[185]
124. We welcome the assurance that the work of
the Sustainable Buildings Task Force in Great Britain is being
monitored. We urge Angela Smith, the Minister with responsibility
for the Environment, in consultation with other Departments, to
consider making a public commitment to extend the Code for Sustainable
Building to Northern Ireland at the earliest opportunity.
167 
