Bids invited to build England's first zero carbon community

House builders have been formally invited to bid to build new housing developments comprising environmentally friendly new homes.

The first sites for these 'eco-villages' - the result of English Partnership's  Carbon Challenge - have been identified at Bristol and Peterborough.

To meet EP's criteria for the challenge the new dwellings will have to achieve the highest level (Level 6) of the Government's new Code for Sustainable Homes.

Around 20 local authorities have expressed an interest in hosting eco-villages to be developed under this scheme led by England's regeneration agency.

The experience gained under this imitative is expected to feed into incoming prime minister Gordon Brown's recent endorsement of the development of five eco-towns of up to 20,000 new homes apiece.

Jayne Lammas, EP's project manager for the Carbon Challenge, said: "The Government has made it clear that all new homes will need to be zero carbon from 2016 and the Carbon Challenge will help demonstrate to the construction industry how this can be achieved."

In a separate development it has emerged that social housing is among the most energy efficient in the country, according to the latest English House Condition Survey, published by Communities and Local Government.

Read English Partnerships press release

Read Communities and Local Government news release on English House Condition Survey

Roger Milne

7 June 2007