The Government's Housing and Regeneration Bill is good news for all those waiting on the housing ladder. However, it does little to tackle the urgent need to upgrade existing homes and make them more energy efficient and greener, warns the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Brian Berry, Director of External Affairs at the FMB says: "Two thirds of the homes that we are living in today will still be in use in 2050 but so far the Government has spectacularly failed to provide any meaningful incentives to make existing homes more energy efficient. Building new eco towns on Greenfield sites is not the long term solution and smacks of government grand-standing when it should instead be addressing the real challenge which is how best to improve the current housing stock."

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Mr Berry continues: "What is needed are incentives to promote small scale new housing developments which focus on existing neighbourhoods, villages and towns, as opposed to creating new settlements. As for creating green homes these are best achieved by upgrading existing homes at a cost of £20,000 per home to meet eco-excellent standards rather than to build new ones, which require an infrastructure subsidy alone of around £35,000 per home plus an extra £30,000 to make them 'zero-carbon' in use. The easiest step would be to reduce VAT from 17.5 per cent to five per cent on energy efficient repairs and maintenance to existing homes in order to retain their future use."

Mr Berry concluded: "The housing issue is about quality and not just numbers. The design and quality of new homes is essential if we are not to repeat the housing policy mistakes of earlier decades which have resulted in demolitions and 'sink estates' which have damaged social cohesion resulting in increased crime and poor health."

(JM)