| By :
Martin Hofschroer
Grant Shapps, the coalitions government's new Housing Minister, has been advised to develop the previous administration's green policies. The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has advised Mr Shapps to follow in the footsteps of the last Labour government and focus on the construction of low carbon homes. Continuing Labour's policies would benefit the environment and the economy, according to the UKGBC, which could lead to increased demand for green energy courses. Paul King, chief executive of the UKGBC, said: "The last government set out world-leading commitments for all new homes to be zero carbon from 2016 and all new non-domestic buildings from 2019, and the industry has risen to this challenge." Mr King went on to say that it was promising that both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats endorsed the zero carbon policies in opposition as it would be important to see consistency from the new government. The construction industry needs stability in order to encourage organisations to continue to invest and facilitate the delivery of emission targets, according to Mr King. UKGBC has welcomed the coalition's plans to cut emissions from central government departments by ten per cent but has called for a comprehensive strategy for reducing emissions across the UK's built environment. Mr King said he hoped that the new target is just the first step of a fresh carbon cutting campaign as energy use in homes and buildings is responsible for 43 per cent of the UK's carbon emissions. "As the UK's biggest construction client and one of the UK's biggest occupiers of buildings, government is ideally placed to lead by example and put buildings at the heart of tackling climate change and reducing energy bills," Mr King added. One way in which homes and building can reduce their carbon emissions and cut bills is to install environmentally friendly appliances. These can include air and ground source heat pumps, biomass boilers, solar-thermal water heaters and combined heat and power plants. An increasing number of tradesmen will be required to go on green energy courses in order to gain the skills to install the green technologies when they become more popular with homeowners and businesses. British Gas recently revealed that it is retraining existing engineers through green energy courses to meet the increased demand for the environmentally friendly appliances. The Liberal Democrats announced before the election in their party manifesto that they have a vision of a zero carbon Britain by 2050.
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