The imperative to address sustainability issues in the housing sector has never been stronger. The acute shortage of housing, especially affordable housing, combined with issues of land availability and the recognition of the urgent need to address climate change, has made building sustainable homes and communities one of the government’s key priorities.

In response to this challenge, the NextGeneration initiative (see Box A) brings together many of the UK’s top home builders with three key stakeholders: a major investor in the sector (Insight Investment), a well-respected non-governmental organisation (WWF-UK) and the public sector funder of affordable housing (The Housing Corporation).