The Federation of Master Builders says the coalition’s new Green Deal is a positive move for the construction sector.
The government wants all homes to be zero carbon by 2016 and plans will be unveiled later this year to make 26 million homes more energy efficient.
The FMB's director of external affairs, Brian Berry, said that not only will this scheme benefit the environment and homeowners, big opportunities will be available for builders to retrofit existing houses.
Whilst this might be ray of hope for the industry, public sector cuts over the next 12 months mean contractors are still in for a bumpy ride, he added. For example, the Building Schools for the Future scheme has already been put on hold due to government cuts, as has investment in new housing projects.
The RICS recently reported that construction workloads fell during the second quarter of this year but this situation will hopefully change if there are more environmental housing projects.
The UK desperately needs the private sector to invest more in property to combat the public sector austerity measures. In the first quarter of the year it looked as if construction firms were seeing improved conditions but Berry believed the fall in quarter 2 was to be expected.
He said the government needs to be persuaded that the construction industry has an important role to play in getting Britain back on its feet after the recession because of the number of people it employs.
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