Carbon-free homes by 2016

11/25/2009

Magna is backing plans for all homes in Dorset to be carbon free from 2016.

Housing Minister John Healey has announced that the UK will be the first country in the world to require this as a matter of law.

All new homes will have to have better insulated walls, windows, ceilings and floors to meet proposed new energy efficiency standards.

Offices, shops, hotels and warehouses will also need to be built differently, so Mr Healey has launched a consultation to gather evidence on how the zero carbon standards could be applied to non-domestic buildings from 2019.

Magna, which owns and manages more than 9,000 properties across the West Country, builds new homes for rent and shared ownership through its development arm, Charter South West Limited.

Development manager, Nigel Spencer, said: “As an organisation, Magna is very supportive of the Government’s target to achieve and supply carbon free homes by 2016.

“Currently, all our new builds across Dorset, Somerset and Devon reach Code for Sustainable Homes Level 3 on and we are now positively striving for Level 4 on all future schemes.  

“Zero Carbon properties will need to achieve Level 6 and so there is a little way to go to reach the target.”

He added: “But once new builds achieve Level 6, this will assist our customers greater because, with not as much reliance being placed on utilities and their associated costs, house prices will be slightly cheaper.”.

Mr Healey pledged an extra £3.2 million to boost long-term research into how we design and build energy efficient homes. The research will use new technologies and materials to provide valuable evidence for future standards and how to drive down energy bills.

He also announced that a new government consortium will use their combined green buying power of potentially over £10billion to boost green skills and technology, while also driving down costs.

He added: “The nation must step up the UK drive on climate change and the new standards signal real momentum to change and radically re-think how we design our towns and homes for the future.

“One in three homes in 2050 will be built between now and then, so the new standards are necessary in order for the country to meet low carbon targets.”