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Scottish builders issue cost warning over green standards
08/04/10
Edited by Sophie Griffiths. New standards that will require Scottish homes to have enhanced energy efficiency, improved sound insulation and better security features could slow down the delivery of much-needed housing by increasing builders' costs, an industry body has warned.
Homes for Scotland said that the tougher benchmarks, which come into force on October 1st, do not balance the need for improved sustainability against "technical and affordability constraints".
It warned that the measures could add as much as £8,000 to the cost of a new home.
Scotland's infrastructure minister Steward Stevenson said that the revised standards will help to cut CO2 emissions by 70 per cent compared to 1990, while also ensuring that households have "better, warmer and quieter" dwellings.
However, Homes for Scotland chief executive Jonathan Fair said that if the government at Holyrood is serious about tackling carbon output, it should be putting "much greater emphasis" on systematically overhauling the environmental and energy performance of existing residential property.
