The Construction Products Association has predicted that the most important driver for house building over the next 10 years will be the focus on environmental issues.
A report for the Association by the Wood Holmes Group says the Government target of 240,000 homes a year in England is unlikely to be met thanks to the inertia of the house building industry and lack of land. It says numbers will stabilize at existing levels and called for less planning restrictions on release of greenfield land. It also warned that high environmental standards will challenge the availability of materials.

“What makes this an even bigger challenge is the high environmental standards that we are being asked to build these new homes to in the future,” said chief executive Michael Ankers. He said: “The construction products industry will only make the necessary investment if it is confident there is a realistic prospect of the targets being met. ”
The report says the most important environmental issues include carbon reduction, water efficiency, products’ environmental standards and flooding. It says the flat building market has reached saturation point and off-site manufacturing will become more important.