League table reveals greenest housebuilders

The Berkeley Group, Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey were ranked as the UK’s top three sustainable housebuilders in a report launched by housing minister Yvette Cooper today.

The "Building a sustainable future’ report by Next Generation ranks the 20 largest British housebuilders according to their sustainable policies.

According to the report 65% of the candidates have included waste management strategies in their planning and 60% have made efforts to build their homes more energy efficiently.

However, the report said the industry had a long way to go before it achieved the government's goal of delivering 250,000 zero-carbon homes a year by 2016.

The report reveals that only 25% of candidates realise their business’ impact on carbon emissions and only 15% have put sustainable procurement policies in place. The bottom three in the ranking are Cala Group, Bloor Holdings and Gladedale Holdings.

The panel behind the report included housing minister Yvette Cooper, chairman of HBF Stewart Baseley, WWF-UK Homes campaigan director Simon McWhirter, Housing Corporation innovation and development manager Amy Ford and Upstream joint managagin director Sarah Ratcliffe.