Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Conclusion 2
First report - Building to net zero: costing carbon in construction
Published 26 May 2022
Paragraph 70
Environmental Audit Committee Sustainability of the built environment All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
A broad cross-section of the construction industry is willing and able to undertake whole-life carbon assessments. In the absence of an approved UK national methodology, the RICS Professional Statement on WLC is used as the accepted industry methodology for WLC assessments. Alongside this, various further guidance and software tools have been developed. As a result of the lack of an approved national methodology, the variety of assessment tools and interpretations for WLC that have developed appear to have created inconsistency, have unnecessarily increased the cost of WLC assessments and have led to an uneven playing field in conducting assessments.
From: Environmental Audit Committee, First report - Building to net zero: costing carbon in construction (HC 103), paragraph 70, 26 May 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 30 September 2022 (deadline 26 July 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees that whole-life carbon assessments are "likely to have a significant role" in decarbonising construction, but it does not commit to mandating them and says it will consult on its approach to embodied carbon in 2023.
- On a mandatory requirement, it "intends to consult in 2023" and will "consider" what levers, including building regulations, will be needed. It says it is "too soon to commit" to ratcheted carbon targets.
- It agrees a standardised calculation method is required and "will look at whether" endorsing specific standards, methodologies or tools "is appropriate".
- It declines to bring forward the Future Homes Standard to 2023, stating it "will not look to alter the timeframe" and that the 2025 timeline delivers on net zero commitments while ensuring homes are delivered in sufficient numbers.
- On public procurement, it says the Procurement Bill would not be an appropriate place for net zero policy priorities, and that there are "no plans to collect and publish" data on whole-life carbon assessments under the Construction Playbook.