The session was to discuss whether the increased cost of compliance with level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes will put the price of new housing beyond the reach of most buyers.

About the Code for Sustainable Homes

The Code for Sustainable Homes was introduced in December 2006 to improve the overall sustainability of new homes by setting a single national standard. It applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and covers a wide range of environmental issues including: energy and carbon dioxide emissions, water usage, materials, surface water run-off, waste (site and household), pollution, health and well-being, site management, ecology and land use. Each dwelling is assessed according to required criteria and awarded a certificate ranging from level one to level six, depending on performance.

The code supports the Government’s target for all new homes to be zero-carbon from 2016 and its six levels have been aligned with step changes to Part L of the National Building Regulations - the section that deals with the conservation of fuel and power. So while compliance with the code is not mandatory, the carbon emissions requirements of each code level effectively become mandatory through their inclusion in Part L.

Achieving code level six, the highest grade, is a significant challenge for house builders, as emissions from the occupant’s activities are counted in addition to fabric losses. This raises the issue of where the additional energy to power a home and its appliances will come from. Using grid electricity will emit carbon, so the code allows house builders to import a proportion of a home’s energy requirement from clean generators such as offshore wind farms through a system called allowable solutions. However, a large proportion of a home’s energy has to be generated through expensive building-mounted low or zero-carbon technologies such as photovoltaic panels.

Topics for discussion at this session included:

• How much does compliance with the code add to the cost of a new home?
• Will the costs of code level six homes decrease as house builders become more experienced at building them?
• What is the impact of the increased cost of a code compliant home on the housing market?
• If code level six is too expensive to achieve in the current market, what level of sustainability would be pragmatic?

Comments arising from these questions included:

• ‘Effectively £1,400 of the cost of compliance with code level three has been subsumed by the revisions to the building regulations’. Mark Farmer, EC Harris
• ‘At the moment, people are replacing produce innovation by using cheap labour’. Pat Bowen, Construction Skills/Future Skills
• ‘The largest proportion of cost for a development is the 106 agreement and affordable housing component; these dwarf all other costs’. John Tebbit, CPA
• ‘The longer we don't achieve zero-carbon in new build, the more you'll have to do with the existing housing stock’. Stephen Passmore, Energy Saving Trust
• ‘If you are only allowed to build a low-carbon home, it has to be at the same price as a second-hand home, or you can't sell it’. Mark Oliver, H+H
• ‘Improving energy efficiency will have a cost. Will customers pay for that? At the moment the answer is no’. Bulen Hoursid, Davis Langdon

The panel of experts included:

- Thomas Lane (Chair), Assistant Editor (Technical), Building
- Jamie Abbot, Business and Training Manager, Sustainable Homes
- Pat Bowen, Training Policy Analyst, Construction Skills/Future Skills
- Greg Cooper, Chief Executive, BBA Mark Farmer, Head of Private Residential, EC Harris
- Cliff Fudge, Technical Director, H+H UK
- Bulen Hourshid, Director, Engineering Services, Davis Langdon, An AECOM Company
- Mark Oliver, Managing Director, H+H UK
- Stephen Passmore, Housing Development Manager, Energy Saving Trust
- John Tebbit, Industry Affairs Director CPA and Member of BRAC