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HBF Want To Exceed Scandinavian Standards

Posted: 10/10/2006

Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman of the Home Builders Federation, will today outline a radical new vision to enable the home building industry to meet and beat Scandinavian environmental standards.

Speaking at the Housebuilding 2006 conference on a platform with Yvette Cooper MP, Minister for Housing and Planning, Stewart Baseley will tell the Government and the home building industry that existing thinking needs to be replaced by a significantly new policy framework if the environmental challenge is to be addressed successfully in the timescale desired. He will tell conference delegates that a new framework, which should engage all stakeholders, will require three critical parts:

Clear and simple long-term environmental performance targets set by Government in consultation with the industry.

A commitment from the Government to monitor progress, but not to pick winners or intervene with new conditions or targets over the course of the framework period.

Consideration of the need for changes to be in line with customer desires and expectations.

“This approach will allow the industry to do what it does best – change, adapt and innovate - providing the shortest and most effective route to attaining the environmental standards set in Scandinavia and other parts of the continent,” Stewart Baseley will tell the conference.

In a call to action, Stewart Baseley will tell members that the home building industry is now at a crossroads: “The environmental agenda is here and it’s here to stay. We can choose to embrace it, lead it, and shape a regulatory environment that is both effective and business-friendly, or we can choose to cover our heads with our hands and await the crude, blunt strikes of regulation and Government action.”

On the back of the conference, the Home Builders Federation will be writing to all the main stakeholders in the debate – house builders, RSLs, environmental NGOs, building products suppliers, consumer groups and utilities – to come together for a high-level environmental roundtable to take this idea forward.

Stewart Baseley will also use the conference platform to press the Government to do more to make the planning system more efficient and bring more land forward for development: “If we can implement this vision, 200,000 new homes each year will be a fundamental part of the solution to the environmental challenge, not part of the problem.

If addressing the current housing shortage was not reason enough, our role in delivering a more sustainable Britain will place a further premium on getting volumes right.”

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