Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Why set standards and then ignore them?

In theory, all new affordable houses should be built to level three of the code for sustainable homes. This is good for the environment and helps keep running costs down for the tenants.

However, recently released figures show that the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) allowed over 39,000 houses to be built to a lower standard.

A total of £8.4 billion of public funding for affordable housing was made conditional on homes meeting level three of the code for sustainable homes in April 2008. However, developers can apply for a 'waiver' from the HCA to free them from this requirement.

Roughly a third of all schemes were granted code waivers.

Berkeley Group managed to build all its 1,384 homes without waivers but other developers did not do so well. Bovis was granted waivers for 86% of the grant-funded homes they planned whilst Lovell had waivers for 66% and Persimmon for 52%.

Looking for a positive side to this, I'm sure these high percentages of waivers did no harm to the profit margin of the developers, so at least the shareholders were kept happy.