Budget 2011: Zero-carbon homes plan 'watered down'

The government has been accused of caving in to pressure from the housebuilding lobby by relaxing the criteria aimed at making all new homes "zero carbon" by 2016 . Tucked away in an appendix to the budget was an announcement that carbon emissions produced by cooking and electrical appliances such as televisions were to be excluded from the definition. These account for between one third and half of a home's total emissions, with the rest coming from lighting and heating. Under the original plans, which have been watered down several times already, housebuilders would have been required to fund renewable energy projects to offset emissions from household appliances. Housebuilders had warned that the higher costs involved would have forced them to build fewer homes and priced many homebuyers out of the market. Whitehall sources defended the compromise, adding that lobbying to push back the 2016 deadline had been successfully resisted. But Simon McWhirter, from the Great British Refurb campaign, who also sits on the government's 2016 zero carbon taskforce, said: "We are absolutely disgusted and outraged by this. It is misleading to call this a zero home definition – it's now no more than low carbon. This is the result of lobbying by housebuilders." The Home Builders Federation had already warned that funding community schemes to promote renewable energy would add an extra 20% to the cost of homes. These schemes were scrapped in the budgeton Wednesday.