How green was the budget?

David Clark
Partner
Cundall

The “green Budget” needs to address more than just climate change. Initiatives for water efficiency would help to protect the UK against future water stress – and saving hot water also saves energy. Encouraging combined heat and power is a positive move but to capture the full benefit we need to have incentives to remove the barriers for district heating. Instead of CHP serving individual buildings we should be looking at making these assets work 24/7. Similarly, for new power stations, as well as carbon capture the Treasury should be tackling heat capture by providing incentives to locate industry near to power stations to provide free heat.

One of the biggest greening opportunities from the Budget is the dire state of the economy itself. We have all been borrowing unsustainably from nature’s bank as well as from the financial institutions and need to tighten our environmental belts and start saving for the future. Financial austerity will hopefully encourage more environmental austerity and innovation. I would like to have seen something in the Budget about weaning society off treating energy and water as unlimited resources. Creating greener technologies is part of the solution but we need to change behaviours as well and start living within our means. Government needs to take a lead.

Dan Jestico
Head of research and development
Hilson Moran

I certainly wouldn’t describe it as a green Budget; it was a recession Budget. The commitment to cut carbon emissions by 34% by 2020 is laudable but no real detail was given on where the savings will be found. A large proportion of UK emissions come from poorly insulated domestic properties and to curb those emissions the government needs to roll out a programme of widespread retrofitting and refurbishment, thereby creating jobs and cutting homeowner fuel bills.

Stephen Matthews
Chief executive
CIBSE

The proposals could provide a much-needed boost to the low-carbon sector and create many new jobs if they are implemented appropriately. It is excellent news that government has committed to a legally binding target to cut carbon emissions by 34% by 2020 as part of the world’s first carbon Budget. Funding an expanded green industry is vital to ensure Britain can meet these new targets. We need to deliver the manufacturing capacity and skills if we are to deliver on these goals.

Taariq Mauthoor
Associate director
Capita Symonds

Over the past few years we have been witnessing the “greening” of Budgets. Although this was not necessarily the first green Budget, it gave principal consideration to sustainability and climate change issues. [CHK rewording with KS] It is reassuring to see that even with the current economic backdrop, sustainability is still high on the political agenda. It certainly demonstrates how environmental issues are being considered more and more seriously, to the point where we have legally binding targets being mentioned.

Richard John
Head of sustainability
AECOM

The very fact that green projects were included in the Budget is an encouraging sign. You can question the numbers, of course, and there’s always a certain amount of spin on any Budget figures, but on the whole it’s a positive step forward. Ten years ago I wouldn’t have though it was possible, so this is a watershed moment.

Liz Peace
Chief executive
British Property Federation

It defies logic that during the worst recession for a generation the government should ignore some very simple practical solutions, laid on a plate in front of it, that would have cost practically nothing and helped the property industry to recover more quickly and get back to doing what it does best for society – namely building and managing the places we need for business, shopping and leisure.

Sunand Prasad
President
RIBA

The Budget carried little positive news for the industry amid a global economic crisis. Regretfully, the government has found it impossible to make a significant investment in the long-term future, whether in housing or infrastructure. Among the few chinks of light was the stimulus for housing, but the 10,000 homes is a fraction of what is needed.

Atif Rashid
Mechanical engineer
Arup

Just calling it “the world’s first carbon Budget” makes me immediately sceptical – especially when the supposed green measures are so weak. A case of greenwash if ever there were one – did they really think no one would notice? The intentions and money announced are all welcome, but it all just feels so limited in ambition and scope. We need radical measures, not a few hundred million pounds splashed here and there.

Martin Clowes
Chairman
Elementa Consulting

The Budget relies on a return to confidence and consumer-led growth next year. I don’t believe it. UK plc has not paid its way in the world for some time. Our vital financial industry has lost the confidence of many customers and is heading down for a while yet. Couple this with a decline in North Sea oil, the developing world skilling-up and financial easing. We face serious uncertainties and profound issues as a “national business”. Austerity is the unspoken word. In sustainable construction, despite the “infrastructure stimulus”, we actually get far less public-sector capital spend. We already have a sharply reduced private sector and nothing on French-style low VAT to reduce the cowboy/black economy. Compliance requirements see no reduction. Rather, we have emphasis on “efficiency savings”. So I expect even more public-sector Treasury hurdles.

For us at Elementa, the carbon Budget is a ray of hope. It ramps up CO2 reductions to 34% by 2020 and becomes a legal obligation. But no details yet! So this Budget pressages trouble ahead. It ratchets up the need to develop differentiation between those who can and those who cannot prove a sustainable environmental performance. To succeed, market, financial and political intelligence will become as important as technical and delivery skills. Only strong and niche businesses will be doing significant projects much beyond 2012.

Tanya Ross
Associate director
Buro Happold

It’s hard to deliver a genuinely green Budget in the middle of a global recession, but some of the initiatives are first steps in the right direction. The commitment to 34% carbon reduction by 2020 is commendable, although it remains to be seen how the government intends to achieve the reductions. Direct investment in green technologies must also be welcomed. My concern is that funding should be directed towards delivering practical implementation of sustainable projects – those that are genuinely going to be adopted by end-users – rather than eye-catching technologies that are some distance from reality.