Green energy set to be compulsory in new homes across Britain

Housing minister Yvette Cooper is determined to push ahead with moves to force developers to cut their carbon emissions by using renewable sources of power.

New planning policy guidance will make clear that ministers stand by council planners who refuse permission for buildings which fail to generate their own energy.

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The measures are part of Gordon Brown's aim to make all new homes "zero-carbon" by 2016 and to meet a target for Britain to obtain 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

According to The Evening Standard newspaper the guidance, to be published later this year, will impose an obligation on town halls to adopt targets for green energy.

In some cases, new developments will have to obtain all their electricity from renewable sources, with others having a 50 per cent target.

Contrary to fears expressed by some environmentalists, Ms Cooper will not be abolishing the Merton Rule, a policy that lets councils insist that all new commercial buildings must take at least 10 per cent of their energy from green sources.

The rule, named after the London borough that pioneered it, has been adopted by more than 150 local authorities. Last year, Ms Cooper gave it her full backing, even suggesting all councils should take it up.

The House Builders Federation, which fears the measure will be applied to housing, has been lobbying strongly to abolish it, claiming it imposes unnecessary costs on developers and is too heavy-handed.

The federation's chairman, Stewart Baseley, wants a national strategy phased in over 10 years and says action at local level will lead to confusion and higher costs.

Renewable energy companies say the rule is much more important to them than the Government's low carbon buildings programme, which provides grants but has run out of money repeatedly and had its rules changed.

But according to the Standard, ministers intend to "widen, not abolish" the rule. "In some instances, we want to see councils going way beyond 10 per cent," a Whitehall source said.

"The rule is not ours to abolish. We want a wider use of renewable energy, for housing as well as commercial buildings."

In areas such as Woking, where the council has pioneered combined heat and power generators, all new housing may have to be linked to such schemes.

A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government denied the planning guidance would ditch the Merton approach.

"Councils will be required to deliver more ambitious carbon-saving measures and set tougher targets for renewable energy for new developments," he said.

The Merton Rule was introduced in 2003. Merton council's cabinet member for the environment, Tariq Ahmad, said: "We would strongly urge the Government to continue letting councils implement renewable energy policy at a local level."

One development where the rule has had a big impact is the housing estate on Arsenal's former ground, Highbury. The scheme will obtain 10 per cent of its energy supplied from renewable sources on the site.