UK housebuilders save billions as government delays low-carbon rules

Housebuilders have benefited to the tune of billions from delays over the past eight years to rules that would have required them to build new homes to a low-carbon standard. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Shares in some of the UK’s biggest housebuilders rose sharply last month, on the news that the government proposed to relax rules that would have hindered them from polluting waterways.

The nutrient neutrality rules would mean they had to clean up wetlands and other damaged areas, if they built houses that could overload a local sewage system. The government announced it would scrap the requirement, and the impact on housing shares was dramatic.