Have you built a den of crime?

Spoiled children, bad parents, gangsta rappers, Thatcherite politicians – there are plenty of people to blame for burglary, vandalism and muggings in our towns and cities, and architects are rarely among them. But a new bill looks set to give government sharper teeth – and greater accountability – in stipulating that buildings play their part in protecting the environment and, a new subject for Building Regulations, reducing crime.

The Sustainable and Secure Buildings Bill is a Private Member's Bill presented by Andrew Stunnell, MP for Hazel Grove. It aims to make buildings of all sorts 'greener' and 'safer' by strengthening the regulations on new, extended and altered buildings to require sustainability and crime reduction measures to be applied as a matter of course.

It also ends the exemption enjoyed by schools and public utilities, together with major repair and renovation works.

It will cover services within and around a building, and not just the structure itself. In addition it requires the Government to report to Parliament on the extent to which sustainability and crime reduction measures have improved the building stock.

The bill was presented to the House of Commons on 6 January. It was amended in Committee on 3 March and as CM went to press was due to report back to the House on 30 April. If successful at report stage it will be sent to the House of Lords for scrutiny under a parallel process. All business relating to the bill must be concluded by close of the Parliamentary Session in November 2004.

Stunnell's bill's progress to date has been smooth because it enjoys cross-party support. It's also supported by the WWF and the police organisation Secured by Design.

So what does the bill do?

• It gives new powers under the Building Act 1984 to improve the sustainability of buildings, currently responsible for around 30% of carbon emissions in the UK and in general notoriously inefficient.
  
• It gives new powers to improve buildings' crime-resistance and security. Currently there are no statutory requirements to comply with police advice.
  
• It gives powers to require that in certain circumstances large scale repair and renovation work should comply with the same standards of sustainability and crime resistance as equivalent new building work.
  
• It identifies a clear chain of responsibility on sites so that defects are identified early on in the construction process, and in extreme cases effective enforcement measures can be taken by Local Authorities.
  
• It brings into the scope of building regulations certain types of building that are currently exempted, including schools and operational buildings owned by public utilities.
  
• It places a duty on the government to report to Parliament at intervals on the progress made in making the building stock more sustainable and crime resistant, and improves the accountability for making sure building standards are kept.