Clause 7 - Energy requirements of buildings
Sustainable and Secure Buildings Bill
10:15 am
Mr Andrew Stunell (Chief Whip; Hazel Grove, Liberal Democrat)
I am sure that, on reflection, the hon. Gentleman would want to withdraw the word ''even.''
That was a helpful intervention. The same Bill Dunster has produced an estimate on the likely additional cost of having the requirement for sustainability built in—BedZed multiplied. He pointed out that with a 100-unit BedZed, which is a zero-energy construction, there would be on-costs of about 30 per cent., but if that number were increased to 5,000, the on-costs would be negligible. With a larger volume, the unit cost and other costs drop, and we move from having costs to having cost advantages, as we can consider using local—or at least UK-produced—materials.
I return to my point about Thameside, and I hope that the Minister will take that message back. He said that he was interested to hear that the draft was beefed up following consultation, and that the final version will be far stronger and far more positive. I am extremely pleased to hear that, and I am pleased that there will be a guide setting out some of the possibilities opened up by the note. I look forward to seeing both of them in the summer. I do not know if Hansard goes in for capital letters, but I should like the words ''in the summer'' to be capitalised. I should like to think that when we carefully consider the Minister's words in the cold light of Hansard, we can say that they permit local authorities to get weaving with their plans now, on the basis that the draft will allow them to go in the direction in which the whole Committee has said that it wants them to go.
I commended the clause at the beginning of today's proceedings and I have received some assurances. I know that the Minister is a man of integrity, and that his Department has all our best interests at heart, most of the time. I should like to think that the fact that this clause appeared in my Bill has been a major stimulus to the Department getting its skates on. I hope that Members' contributions to the debate have persuaded the Minister that, were he or the Deputy Prime Minister to think of backsliding, a significant number of Members would be on his back in a flash. On that basis, I shall not press the clause at this stage.
Question put and negatived.
Clause 7 disagreed to.
Clause 8Energy efficiency of housesin multiple occupation