Jenny Jones has revealed that only 0.6% of affordable homes that were built in 2010/11 and assessed against the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes met the Government’s zero carbon standard, with none reaching the highest code level 6. Residents living in a level 6 flat could save £1250 per year in energy bill reductions and energy generation income.
Jenny commented:
"The Mayor and the industry really need to pick up the pace on building high quality affordable homes. They may cost a little more to build, but you aren’t really providing people with an affordable home if their energy bills are sky high.
"These figures show that most affordable homes were built to a standard that will probably mean they need an energy efficient refurb in a few years under the Green Deal. We need to be building as close to zero carbon as possible so this isn’t necessary."
Notes to editors
Figures on energy bill savings come from a 2010 Government estimate:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/newsroom/1766293
The figures on homes built are available in the Mayor’s answer below. There are six levels in the Code for Sustainable Homes, and levels 5 and 6 can qualify as "zero carbon" homes with a 100% improvement in energy efficiency compared to building regulations. Most affordable homes in 2010 only met level 3, which requires a 25% improvement. All new affordable homes built from 2011 onwards are supposed to reach level 4, and from 2016 they will all need to reach level 5 or 6.
Sustainable homes
Question No: 2414 / 2011
Jenny Jones
Can you tell me the number of homes funded through the National Affordable Housing Programme that were completed in 2009/10 and 2010/11, and that are forecast to be completed in 2011/12, broken down by the level of the Code for Sustainable Homes that they will achieve?
Written response from the Mayor
The HCA holds assessments against the Code for Sustainable Homes for only a minority of the new build completions in 2009/10, and for just over half of those completed in 2010/11. This is because the remainder were assessed against the earlier Ecohomes rating system, which was the system in place when they were started. The number of completions in 2009-11 that achieved each level of the Code is set out in the table below.
2009/10 2010/11
Five 7 30
Four 42 801
Three 1,230 4,456
Two 15
One 15
Total 1,279 5,317
There is no forecast available for completions in 2011/12.