Calls for incentives to 'boost building improvements'

A committee of MPs has called on the government to provide extra cash to increase the energy efficiency of commercial properties.

In its report this week, the All Party Urban Development Group also recommended that building regulations be tightened to boost environmental standards and that display energy certificates be more widely introduced.

Group chairman Clive Betts said properties - both commercial and residential - hold enormous potential for carbon-cutting initiatives but that the government must lead the way in encouraging energy savings by providing financial incentives.

He added: "We need systemic and scale solutions. The empty rhetoric must end so that ministers and business leaders can both take real action."

Other recommendations by the committee that may interest people looking to self build include a single standard for measuring a property's energy performance, and a national database to compare the energy performance of buildings in use with their initial design assumptions.

Meanwhile, new proposals by the European Commission to reduce VAT rates could allow member states to cut the tax from 17.5 per cent to just five per cent on domestic building work.