Green Designs

By John Healey MP

This week, the Government has shown once more how Labour is facing up to the urgent challenges of climate change, and illustrating at the same time how our country is leading the world’s transition into a new low carbon economy.

For my part as Housing Minister, I want new designs for greener living. That is why I am radically redesigning how we in Britain plan and build our homes and communities, to create zero carbon developments that combine affordability, quality infrastructure and the innovative use of technology.

It is shocking that more than a quarter of Britain’s emissions come from our housing – they are leaking heat and energy, and therefore money. They are contributing to the climate change threat. This has to stop.

In future, our homes will be green-proofed, for environmental as well as economic reasons. They will have smart meters to track energy use by the minute, so people can take stock of what it is costing them before the bills arrive.

Homes will also produce their own energy, potentially earning money from selling a surplus back into the grid. And there will be heat pumps and biomass boilers that in turn can produce energy for the wider community.

Pivotal in all of this redesign however, is the green light I have given to four eco-town sites – pioneering places that in a decade’s time will be the benchmark for every new development that follows. They will provide those who live and work there with lower utility bills, energy efficient offices and brand new schools, community centres and services.

Eco-towns will burst at the seams with green technology, including charging points for electric cars. The people who live there will do so in smart, affordable homes, with energy drawn from the natural elements and instant control of heat and ventilation. Nearly half of the land will be open space, with parks, playgrounds and gardens.

We said we want to see ten eco-towns by 2020, so I will help fund work towards six more eco-towns and with confidence that developers and councils will come forward with strong proposals.

Of course, those zero policy Tories offer little more than coarse comments about low-flush toilets and dumping on green fields. Such remarks ignore how eco-towns will be capable of linking into and improving existing infrastructure and communities.

They also ignore the urgent need for more homes, more construction jobs and more action to halt climate change – all of which will be provided by our pioneering eco-towns.

The Tories claim to be green. But scratch the surface, and they’re blue through and through. Behind the times, and when not engaged in full-on scaremongering, they’re recycling in the most trite of ways the need for ‘change’.

Our Government’s historic eco- announcements this week – a co-ordinated roadmap to a low carbon economy with new industry, transport, energy and housing action – confirm that only Labour is serious and capable of building for Britain’s green future.

Rt Hon John Healey MP is Housing Minister.