Examination of Witnesses (Questions 116-119)
MS SARAH
WEBB AND
MR RICHARD
BAINES
19 NOVEMBER 2007
Q116 Chair: Good afternoon. Welcome to
this session. I will leave it to the two of you to decide who
will answer the questions. Can I ask first of all about your memorandum
which is arguing that the Government needs to put much more urgency
into the issue of improving the existing housing as opposed to
new housing; and what would be the key steps that you think the
Government should focus on in order to give more urgency to the
existing stock?
Ms Webb: We do need the equivalent
of the code for new build for existing housing. We have various
codes and standards around at the moment, but first of all they
are not good enough or robust enough, and, secondly, they are
not mandatory. We can make progress on a voluntary basis, but
our concern is that unless we have (a) a code and (b) a programme
behind the code, we will not make the kind of rapid progress that
we need to make a change.
Q117 Mr Olner: It seems to me that
the DCLG are moving forward quite well on new build, but there
is an awful lot of existing housing that needs to be brought up
to standard. If we look at the Sustainable Homes Code for existing
housing do you think it should be mandatory instead of voluntary?
Mr Baines: I think it should.
If you look at the work that has been done by people like Boardman
at Oxford University, if we are talking about the 40% house what
we need to do for the future is to get 60% carbon savings by 2050,
and if you look at the size of the existing stock against what
we are building new, it is an imperative that we go forward and
so do something with existing housing. One of the key issues is
whether there will be some sort of mandatory requirement, not
just for social housing but particularly for private sector housing.
How you do that, obviously you need to be careful.
Q118 Mr Olner: Richard, I think you
need to speak up.
Mr Baines: I have a terrible cold
and my voice is going. I do apologise.
Chair: Perhaps if you could direct your
voice at the microphone rather than looking at the Committee Member.
Q119 Mr Olner: I am pleased that
you agree but who is going to be able to enforce this? At what
level will this mandatory code be enforced? Will it be left to
the local authority or will it be mandatory or will it be voluntary?
It is all very good the Government and ourselves bringing up some
very good ideas, but without a form of robust policing then it
is not going to work.
Mr Baines: We have also said in
our response that we believe that an `MOT' for houses would be
a good idea. How and when you apply this—
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