Memorandum from the Building Research
Establishment (BRE)
1. BRE is owned by the Foundation for the
Built Environment (FBE), a registered research and education charity
whose mission is to champion excellence and innovation in the
built environment.
2. BRE is the UK's leading centre for research
and consultancy on:
— construction quality, process and
productivity;
— environmental impact of construction,
sustainability and whole-life performance;
— energy efficiency of buildings;
— renewable energy in buildings;
— building performance—structures,
materials and systems;
— prevention and control of fire;
— knowledge dissemination and systems.
3. BRE is committed to making its comprehensive
expertise and experience available to the benefit of those involved
in the construction and associated industries, from multinational
companies and government departments to individual architects
and builders.
Are the conclusions of the Barker Review compatible
with the general principles of sustainable development and the
Government's own sustainable development objectives?
4. To be truly sustainable, development
needs to achieve a balance between environmental, social and economic
needs and impacts. This is a difficult balance to achieve; but
if the overriding consideration is one of economics, at the expense
of environmental and social impacts, then this is not sustainable,
nor does it support the Government's own sustainable development
objectives. However, it is our view that building homes that offer
high standards of environmental performance and which meet the
social needs of the communities for which they are built, would
also provide both short and long term economic benefit.
In view of the Barker Review is there a need for
an overarching national strategy to ensure that the environment
is at the heart of any building programme?
5. It is difficult to see that the Barker
report calls for the above. In some respects it might appear to
take a more balanced `sustainable' approach; eg Recommendation
7 in relation to PPG3 states that ". . . there should be
a full consideration of the economic, social and environmental
costs and benefits . . .", which would be welcomed. However,
the recommendation (and the tenor the whole report) goes on effectively
only to address economic issues of affordability and costs, giving
the impression that these will outweigh environmental considerations,
which is not sustainable. If future development is to be sustainable,
is to serve the long term needs of communities and provide a platform
for the continuing health of the UK economy then we believe that
it is essential that there is a coherent national strategy for
placing environment at the heart of any building programme.
Is the current planning system robust enough to
ensure that the environmental implications of building projects
are fully taken into account?
6. No.
How can the planning system be used to increase
the building of more sustainable housing?
7. It would need to be a requirement of
the planning system that developers explicitly demonstrate the
sustainability of the development; ie the social and economic
need for, and benefits of the development, and the measures taken
to manage/mitigate the impacts on the environment.
Would the proposed changes to the planning system
in the Barker Review have a positive or negative effect on the
environment?
8. There is nothing within the recommendations
of the Barker Review to suggest that the proposed changes to the
planning system would have a positive impact on the environment.
Where will the proposed new housing be built?
What are the implications for land-use and flood risk of the large-scale
proposed building projects?
9. The Barker Review accepts that the location
of any proposed new housing needs to reflect the economic, social
and environmental needs of the region or local area, and that
this needs to be assessed. It is therefore impossible to be precise
about where such development should take place and the implications
this has for land use and flood risk. However, at a time when
there are parts of the country crying out for redevelopment and
regeneration of urban areas it would arguably be more sustainable
to ensure that these received an appropriate share of the development
effort.
Is it possible to ensure materials and resources
used, and waste produced, during building do not have a harmful
impact on the environment?
10. It would be impossible to always ensure
that materials and resources used, and waste produced, during
building do not have a harmful impact on the environment. However,
BRE has developed a number of methodologies and tools to help
the construction industry minimise the environmental impacts of
construction. These include: Environmental Profiling and certification
of construction materials and components; the Green Guides to
specification and Envest; tools which are based on environmental
Life Cycle Assessment; BREEAM and EcoHomes, methodologies for
assessing the environmental impacts of buildings; the SMARTwaste
suite of waste management tools; developed for construction; and
the Sustainable Development Checklist, which assesses the environmental,
social and economic issues of large scale mixed use developments.
We believe that the use of these tools is already helping to reduce
the environmental impacts of construction and that their wider
uptake would have major benefits in this area. Details of BRE's
sustainability tools can be found on our website http://www.bre.co.uk
and of the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM and EcoHomes)
at http://products.bre.co.uk/breeam/index.html . The use of common
standards and the wider availability of certified environmental
products and materials would give the industry and its consumers
greater confidence to specify more sustainable building solutions.
Are the building regulations as they stand capable
of ensuring that new housing is truly sustainable in the long
term? How could they be improved? Could greater use be made of
existing environmental standards for housing?
11. The Building Regulations as they currently
stand are not capable of ensuring that new housing is truly sustainable.
Building Regulations set minimum standards of performance and
would have to move a long way to provide "true sustainability".
The Private Member's Bill (the Sustainable and Secure Buildings
Bill) would, if enacted, be a major step in this direction, as
it aims precisely to bring sustainable development within the
scope of Building Regulations.
12. Certainly greater use of existing and
higher environmental "standards" for housing development
should be encouraged. The technical solutions to achieve higher
standards of environmental performance are available now, and
it is BRE's view that good environmental performance, if designed
in at the at the beginning of a development, need not lead to
significantly increased costs of construction. However, fiscal
measures to support the construction of housing with lower environmental
impact would be beneficial in overcoming resistance from some
areas to achieving higher standards. This would generate the volume
in the market that would mitigate, through economies of scale,
any claims of increased cost.
13. A number of organisations (English Partnerships,
the Housing Corporation, the WWF, Countryside Properties and others
) support the use of EcoHomes (the version of BREEAM for homes)
as the environmental assessment "standard" for housing.
The Sustainable Buildings Task Group (co-Chairs Sir John Harman
and Victor Benjamin) has also recently reported on this subject.
A recommendation of their report is the setting up of a Public
Private joint venture body to establish a Code of Sustainable
Building, based on BREEAM.
How will it be possible to ensure a sustainable
infrastructure, including transport and water supply, which will
be necessary to support any extensive house building, is put in
place?
14. Only by making development conditional
on the ability to deliver, alongside the housing, the places of
work, schools, hospitals etc and the infrastructure to support
them. This infrastructure must also be sustainable.
Do those involved in housing supply, both in the
public and private sector, have the necessary skills and training
to ensure new housing meets environmental objectives? If not,
how can the knowledge base of those involved in the planning and
building process be improved?
15. It is clear that, while at the leading
edge the skills needed to provide new housing that will meet environmental
objectives do exist, in the generality the skills base is low.
Within the housing sector, particularly in housing construction
for the private purchaser, there seems to be a reluctance to move
away from traditional methods and styles of construction, a lack
of awareness and understanding of what can be achieved, and a
failure to recognise the importance of, and the opportunities
on offer from, building more sustainably.
16. This also seems to extend into planning
and building control; where either lack of awareness, or the constraints
of the planning systems and Building Regulations, seem to restrict
or at the very least hamper progress to higher levels of performance.
17. Modern methods of construction (MMC),
including modular design and offsite manufacture, have the potential
to meet the UK need for new high quality housing across the spectrum
from affordable to luxury units. This approach can deliver sustainable
solutions through better supply chain management, innovative materials,
higher standards of quality, improved site safety and reduced
development timescales. At this stage the economic and social
benefits of offsite construction are fairly clear but the environmental
benefits need further consideration. Offsite construction may
have implications for transport movements and the sourcing of
materials local to construction sites. However, these issues need
to be set against the great potential for improving the performance
of housing constructed in this way. The benefits of modern methods
of construction will only be fully realised if the industry is
given the support that it needs to overcome market barriers and
to innovate. Common certification standards for MMC housing incorporating
broad stakeholder requirements (such as insurance and mortgage
lending) as well as statutory needs, will ensure the wider acceptance
and adoption of these methods.
18. The issue of the skills shortage and
skills needs has been examined in detail by others, (eg Egan)
and the size of the task to correct the current position across
all the relevant disciplines has been recognised as considerable.
Fundamentally, sustainability has to be incorporated into training
at all levels; through colleges and modern apprenticeships, at
universities and design schools; through trade associations and
professional bodies moving to make continuing professional development
in the area of sustainability a requirement for the ongoing "license
to practice".
May 2004
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