Examination of Witnesses (Questions 60
- 66)
WEDNESDAY 16 JUNE 2004
MR PAUL
KING
Q60 Mr Challen: Skyscrapers in Leeds
are popular, they are building more of them. I just wanted to
ask about the attitude and practices of British house builders
compared with house builders on the Continent, particularly
in Germany and Scandinavia. Do you think that we are well ahead
of those people or well behind them?
Mr King: All the evidence suggests
that we are well behind in terms of the quality of our buildings
and in many cases the level of our regulations but there are important
cultural differences as well. In many parts of Continental Europe
people are much more involved in the process of deciding what
form of house they want and in many cases it is much more common
for people to acquire a plot and then to choose what kind of house
they want to build on it. They are much more engaged in the process
rather than being on the receiving end of what a house builder
gives them, which is more characteristic of house builders in
the UK.
Q61 Mr Challen: House builders may
not have such large land banks as British house builders acquire?
Mr King: That is probably right
although I do not have any particular information on that.
Q62 Joan Walley: I think you have
covered some of the issues I waned to raise on the Sustainable
Buildings Task Group and I noted your comments about your worry
about the Code being watered down. Is there anything that can
be done to prevent it being watered down?
Mr King: I think there is a very
broad consensus now around the idea that we should not be building
new homes that do not achieve the sorts of standards of, let's
say, the EcoHomes "very good" level of standards. That
was the proposal from the Sustainable Buildings Task Group to
the Government in terms of how it should interpret the recommendation
for a code for sustainability. Anything less than that, as I have
said, will be no different from the status quo. It will be a change
of language rather than substance. We have already had, as I have
said, the Housing Corporation committed to the lower standards,
which is an advance over the private sector at the moment, and
we have the commitment of English Partnerships, so I would have
to say if we are going to water down the Code of Sustainability,
what is the point?
Q63 Joan Walley: Are you hopeful
that most of the recommendations are going to be taken up?
Mr King: I certainly hope so.
What was gratifying was that there was such cross-party, cross-sector
support for the recommendations within the group, which included
mainstream house builders among others, when they were delivered
to government. Certainly the recommendations were well received
by the Housing Minister and when I pressed him, given his enthusiastic
response, as to when we might expect to see the Code for Sustainable
Buildings implemented and would we see that by the time of the
proposed Sustainable Communities summit in January, he said he
thought that was a fair target for government to aspire to.
Q64 Joan Walley: Can I just turn
to Andrew Stunell's Private Member's Bill on Sustainable Buildings
because I know you have supported that. Do you feel it has in
its current form and the form it looks likely to be taken on to
the statute book, assuming all goes well, been watered down at
all or do you think there are concerns about that Bill?
Mr King: I hope not. We are optimistic
at the moment that that Bill will be on the way to Royal Assent
in the autumn. We believe that by far and away the most important
aspect of that Bill is the enabling powers it gives to the Buildings
Act and therefore for the building regulations to address legitimately
the issues of sustainability across a broader range of issues,
and we think that is critical. Obviously what is all important
is that if that Bill does pass into law that very quickly the
Government responds by introducing the kind of regulations that
actually have been sitting waiting for some attention for some
time.
Q65 Joan Walley: How soon do you
think those regulations could be there to be enforced?
Mr King: I think a lot of those
recommendations have already been drafted. We produced a report
in conjunction with the Town and Country Planning Association
earlier last year and, as I have said, when we presented the recommendations
for specific amendments to the building regulations they were
warmly welcomed by the ODPM building regulations division. We
believe that team has been very co-operative with us in supporting
the Bill thus far and we believe that quite a lot of work has
already been done in drafting some of those regulations, so we
would like to see the majority of those regulations in place by
the end of 2005.
Q66 Joan Walley: In a nutshell what
improvements do you think that will bring?
Mr King: I think it will send
a very strong signal to the industry that the Government is in
a regulatory sense serious about improving standards of sustainability
in construction. There are important aspects to do with the use
of materials which really are not sufficiently catered for at
the moment such as building on the existing water regulations
to improve the provision for greater water efficiency and other
areas. So I think it will send an important signal. Having said
that, I would not want to overstate the importance in a sense
that we still anticipate that that will be a regulatory floor
rather than aspiring to the sorts of standards that we actually
believe are necessary.
Chairman: Okay, thank you very much indeed.
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