All sectors of the UK development industry are sceptical of Government’s policy objectives.
76% of respondents think that the Government’s plans for making all new housing zero carbon by 2016 are unrealistic. 73% percent believe plans to make new commercial property zero carbon by 2019 are unrealistic. However, respondents are also convinced that the ‘stick’ of regulation is most likely to drive progress in future, highlighting the need for closer industry-government collaboration.

A majority of all sectors (60%) have direct experience of using green leases and other green agreements.
This is a dramatic increase from Behind the Green Façade which found that 46% of end users were not even aware of the existence of such green agreements or provisions. Of the approximately 40% of respondents who had not yet used a green agreement, almost half said they would consider it in future. Non-binding arrangements are by far the most common.

The industry acknowledges that it is not communicating well with regards to sustainability.
Only a minority of respondents say they are communicating sustainability performance 'quite well' or 'very well' to internal (47.4%) or external (33.7%) audiences. Traditional industry divides, the complexity and fragmentation of the industry and the lack of a common currency of frameworks and benchmarks combine to create a major communications challenge.