One-tenth of materials used in a new building should be recycled or reclaimed, says the government's Sustainable Buildings Task Group.
A report leaked to Building also recommends a 25% saving in water efficiency of completed buildings by summer 2005.

The SBTG will also call for a code of sustainable construction to be established, to encourage building to higher sustainable standards than those laid out in the Building Regulations. The code would be the result of a collaboration between the government and the industry and would incorporate successful elements of existing initiatives such as the Housing Corporation's Design Homes Standard and BRE's EcoHomes system. It would set specific standards in areas such as water, energy efficiency and waste management and would be updated to keep abreast of new innovations.

The SBTG also advocates a labelling scheme for construction materials to cover life cycle and recycled content. It says that once this is in place, the government should reduce VAT on sustainable construction materials to encourage take-up by the industry.