Delivering sustainable development is fundamentally important in a changing global context which recognises that there is an urgent need for action on climate change. Sustainability must be central to the delivery of the new homes that are needed, to the businesses that are necessary to create jobs and prosperity, and to the delivery of a broad range of infrastructure.
The Importance of Sustainability
Development has a key role in helping to tackle climate change. It also makes an important contribution to a prosperous economy and to people's quality of life. Government has recognised this and building sustainable homes, workplaces and communities is now one of their key priorities. Increasingly, the development industry is recognising the importance of sustainability issues and is reacting appropriately. However, more needs to be done if we are to secure a high quality of life in the longer-term.
New Government Policy
In recent years there has been a plethora of new Government policy. During 2007 the Government introduced its highly challenging vision for achieving zero carbon homes by 2016, at the same time as accelerating the delivery of sustainable new communities to provide three million new homes by 2020. Principal amongst these are the Climate Change Bill, the Housing and Regeneration Bill, the Housing Green Paper, the Building a Greener Future policy document and the Code for Sustainable Homes, which combine to set a demanding agenda and a new set of standards for developers.
A Leader in Sustainable Development
Countryside Properties has been a leader in sustainable development for some years. It is one of our core values and we have learnt much from our experiences. We recognise that innovative, responsible development creates added value and is fundamental to our future.
NextGeneration Review
It was extremely rewarding when the Group was ranked by NextGeneration (a multi-stakeholder initiative between Insight Investment, WWF-UK and the Housing Corporation) as the leading privately owned housebuilder for sustainability practices and reporting.
The NextGeneration review has highlighted the three key challenges that the development sector and the Government faces in the delivery of sustainable communities: sustainability; availability and affordability. We are making good progress on each of these issues and, as the review recognises, we are well placed to meet the challenge of sustainability and the significant opportunities that exist for developers with the appropriate abilities.
Successfully Meeting Expectations
We are developing more high quality new homes each year in line with the Government’s sustainability aspirations, despite the industry facing unprecedented delays in the planning system. We are also successfully reducing the average selling price of our homes to make them more affordable. In addition, our design and build contracting business makes a valuable contribution to delivering high quality affordable homes to RSLs. Moreover, we are participating in English Partnership’s First Time Buyer Initiative at a number of our developments, which seeks to increase the supply of affordable housing for sale.
Responsible Development
We are continuing to adapt to meet the changes that are now demanded in response to climate change and the broader sustainability agenda. However we must meet the requirements in a responsible, measured way. We must plan, design and build to enable communities to be sustainable economically, socially and environmentally.
As we respond to the challenge of moving to a low-carbon economy, I have no doubt we will see extraordinary innovation in design, materials and construction techniques. Indeed, the efficiency savings should be enormous. Whilst the challenges are highly demanding they do present a very significant opportunity for responsible developers.
This is the seventh year that we have reported on our environmental, social and ethical (ESE) performance. This ESE Report describes our progress against each of the actions and targets that we have set. It also gives details of our ESE policies and highlights our commitment to urban regeneration and the creation of sustainable communities with a number of case studies.
Alan Cherry CBE DL
Chairman
31st January 2008
Alan Cherry, Chairman
It was extremely rewarding when the Group was ranked by NextGeneration as the leading privately owned housebuilder for sustainability practices and reporting.