Asset Skills welcomes report into low carbon construction

Dec 2010

Asset Skills has welcomed the publication of a report into low carbon construction by the Construction Innovation and Growth team within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The Sector Skills Council covering facilities management, housing, property, planning, cleaning and parking recognises the need for parties concerned with the built environment to work together.

The report takes construction to include existing building stock and recognises the importance of providing people with buildings that enable them to lead more energy efficient lives. It acknowledges that this implies new knowledge and skills to ensure implementation.

The report also calls for leadership, cooperation between interested parties, clear and transparent planning, new skills development and clear incentives to progress.

For existing buildings, both domestic and don-domestic, Asset Skills particularly supports the concept of a joint research, development, deployment and strategy group that can provide the leadership required to achieve change.

"We welcome the broad thrust of this report. Asset Skills has been working for some time with industry partners on a range of low carbon-related issues and are encouraged to continue in this vein," said Richard Beamish, Chief Executive of Asset Skills.

"The report suffers a little from the lack of representation on any of its committees from employers and other partners in the industries covered by the built environment, apart from construction itself.

"This could have led to an imbalanced view although it appears to have been avoided for the most part. That said, we look forward to working closely with the Low Carbon Construction Innovation and Growth Team in a spirit of co-operation."