With the increasing cost of utility bills, the environmental performance and efficiency of a home has never been as important as it is today. Through improved building practices and the use of more energy efficient materials we have achieved substantial reductions in the average running cost of a home to the extent that a new Bellway home is now some 40% more efficient compared to a similar home built 5 years ago.

In line with the Government target of creating carbon neutral homes by 2016, we have substantially increased the number of sites where we include renewable energy technology. Currently 112 plots feature solar panels; in addition we have installed 111 photo voltaic panels, 62 biomass heat units and 22 air-source heat pumps. At Halstead in Essex we are about to build 43 homes to code level 3 using air source heat pumps and a heat recovery system which will reduce the carbon footprint of the homes by around 40 per cent compared to a home fuelled by a conventional gas condensing boiler.

During the year we have completed 1194 homes to EcoHomes methodology and built 48 homes to Code level 3. The number of Bellway homes meeting these standards has risen consistently in recent years and we expect this trend to continue.