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The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) is urging the Government to create a strategy for dealing with the UK’s existing building stock.

Speaking today at Ecobuild, the world’s largest event dedicated to the built environment, Richard Diment, Director General of the FMB said:

"The UK’s building stock is responsible for 47 percent of the UK’s carbon emissions and 85 per cent of these buildings will still be in use in 2050 when the Government plans to have cut carbon emissions by 80 percent. Building zero carbon new homes is not enough; the Government must look at refurbishing the existing building stock."

Diment continued:
"The construction industry is at its bleakest position since the 1980s. 300,000 jobs are expected to be lost and with them thousands of valuable skilled workers. However, the Government could kill two birds with one stone by setting out its strategy to renovate existing buildings to eco-excellent standards. Research from Oxford University suggests that this could create a £3.5billion market for the construction sector not to mention the benefits for the environment and individual homeowners as their energy bills would be reduced through energy efficiency."

Diment concluded:
"The Government needs to act now to save jobs, save homeowners money at this difficult time, and to save the built environment. A cut in VAT to five percent on home maintenance and repairs would be a very welcome initial step forward as it would encourage homeowners to carry out more energy efficiency projects."

Get Britain Building Manifesto
This ten point plan has been devised as a strategy for the Government to use to Get Britain Building again.

1. Ensure responsible lending to prudent borrowers coupled with the reintroduction of mortgage interest tax relief
2. Cut VAT from 17.5 per cent (15 per cent for the next 13 months) to five per cent for all building repair and maintenance work
3. Develop and implement a coherent strategy to deal with the UK’s existing housing stock both in terms of helping to create more homes and making the UK’s existing stock more energy efficient
4. Set targets for all local authorities to fast track the planning process to release and designate land for social housing
5. Simplify the planning system
6. Produce an implementation plan to show the precise timings and location of public spending on schools, hospitals and prisons to ensure that projects are completed in 2009 and 2010 respectively
7. Introduce a section 106 agreement holiday and then subsequently cap the value of section 106 agreements. Abandon the proposed Community Infrastructure Levy
8. Reduce the regulatory and fiscal burden
9. Reform stamp duty so that only have higher rates of stamp duty apply to the proportion of the house price which is in the relevant band i.e. a graduated tax like income tax
10. Reintroduce empty property rate relief