Housebuilders will miss zero carbon homes target, says Barratt boss

Housebuilders will not meet the government’s target for all new homes to be zero carbon in 2016, Barratt Homes chief executive Mark Clare said today.

Clare – who chaired the government’s low carbon construction working group for housing – said he did not expect firms to meet the target until 2018.

The zero-carbon homes target was set by Gordon Brown and the then housing minister Yvette Cooper in 2006 and was retained by the coalition.

Speaking at a panel discussion at construction event Ecobuild, Clare said: “We (housebuilders) won’t be 100% carbon neutral until 2018.”

The head of the UK’s biggest housebuilder explained delays in finalising a definition of what zero-carbon meant had contributed to the hold-up.

“We do need to see that definition. It’s now long overdue,” Clare added.