George Osborne's 2011 Budget has been met with disappointment from many environmental campaigners.  The budget has seen the requirement for new homes to be fully Zero Carbon from 2016 "watered down." The government has reversed the policy that all homes need to be zero carbon by 2016 by no longer including the energy usage of cooking and electrical appliances, such as televisions.  It is estimated that these can account for between one third and half of a homes emissions.  This reduces the validity of the zero carbon definition as it will only include heating, lighting and water.  Under the original plan housebuilders would have been required to fund renewable energy projects to offset emissions from household appliances, although this was never really a realistic plan.

Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK Green Building Council said "in the space of two weeks, this government has gone from a firm commitment on zero carbon homes, to a watered down policy.  A zero carbon home will no longer do what it says on the tin.  The world leading commitment that new homes would not add to the carbon footprint of our housing stock from 2016 has been scrapped despite remarkable consensus between industry and NGOs in support for it."

However, Grant Shapps, Minister of State for Housing and Local Government tweeted "New standard for zero carbon homes means a 100% reduction in emissions from homes without unfair costs for housebuilders."

Essentially, this means from 2016 onwards every new house will be very low-carbon, not "zero carbon."  It will put the emphasis on the occupants to watch their energy consumption from the endless appliances we will no doubt be using in 2016!