South-east building frenzy will cause ‘massive rise in carbon emissions’

The report from the environmental audit committee claims that under current development plans, housing could account for 55% of carbon emissions by 2050, up from the current level of 30%. It said there was no evidence that swathes of green belt are needed for new homes in the South-east.

The report slammed the lack of “joined-up thinking” between the ODPM and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and called for new regulations that emphasised energy efficiency. It said the forthcoming voluntary Code for Sustainable Buildings was inadequate.

Peter Ainsworth, the committee chair and MP for East Surrey, said: “The housebuilding industry isn’t building to the highest possible standards and is not being properly monitored. It should be made to do so.”

It warned that economist Kate Barker’s recommendation that supply of land should be increased would encourage housebuilders to create unsustainable homes, ignoring the need for smaller homes, higher densities and more social housing.

The government should bring in stricter measures if the housing industry has not improved the supply of affordable homes by 2007, the report advised.

The study was welcomed by Derrick Ashley, Hertfordshire council’s executive member for the environment. He said: “We agree with everything it says. [The Communities Plan] is a Treasury-inspired plan to accommodate growth in the South-east to the detriment of everything else.”

But housing consultant Roger Humber said the committee “wasn’t living in the real world”. He said the use of green belt would be good for the environment, creating communities with job opportunities that would reduce the need to travel in certain parts of Hertfordshire and Essex.

He said greater government regulation would be counterproductive to the plan as a whole because it would act as a disincentive to the industry.

Meanwhile, a South-east regional assembly spokesman said it was working with the Environment Agency on a set of environmental recommendations for the plan that would be presented to the ODPM.