I’m not the least bit surprised to discover, via HomeMove, that recent research by Velux shows that self-builders use more energy saving technologies in their new houses than anyone else.

Kevin Brennan of Velux explained that the building industry is under increasing Government pressure to improve its carbon footprint and it is the self-builders which have emerged as the innovators within the market.

Almost without exception, everyone in this group now incorporate a range of eco-techniques and technologies such as solar energy, wall and roof insulation and rainwater harvesting, throughout the building process, added Mr Brennan.

This makes total sense and shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. Self-builders have pretty much full control over the design of their house, and that includes deciding how environmentally friendly they want to be. Sure, it costs a bit more up front, but the opportunity to save money in the long term, by reducing wasted energy through thorough insulation, for example, or by installing solar power or a heat pump, is really attractive to people building what could well be their dream home. And people developing a property to sell on understand that green is a good selling point these days.

What we need now are for the big builders to follow suit, and to realise that energy efficiency isn’t just for Christmas. How likely is that to happen? Well, if the recent accusations from the Office of Fair Trading that 112 construction companies have been rigging bids for contracts are anything to go by, we shouldn’t expect the industry to get a clue any time soon.

[The OFT] said the firms colluded among themselves while bidding for contracts, leading to customers, such as local authorities, having to pay too much.

The regulator added that in a few cases firms entered into agreements whereby the successful tenderer would pay a sum of money to those that lost out.

It said 40 firms had admitted price fixing, and 37 had asked for leniency.

The cartel practice involved the use of false invoices.

Construction giants Balfour Beatty and Carillion are among those the OFT accuses of taking part.

Whilst the article talks mainly about contracts such as those for local authorities, if they’re engaging in one sort of crooked practice then it’s not unreasonable for us to question their ability to do anything by the book. Indeed, the implication from this article is that the entire construction industry is bent as a nine bob note:

Former quantity surveyor Bryan Rylands told the BBC that he left the industry because he was so disillusioned by the scale of the problem of price-fixing.

“It continues from the self-employed builder right through to your major construction companies that are doing work here in the UK and overseas,” he said.

“It’s extensive, I mean it is a cancer, it’s not benign, it is rife.”

This is a view that was also expressed by Eddy Shah in April’s edition of Grand Designs Magazine (p 35, sadly not online). He talks about how our homes are amongst the smallest in Europe, averaging 76sqm compared to over 100sqm in Europe, and how we pay more than we need to: a three bedroom house costs around £250k, when they can be built and sold for £180k. Why is this?

The volume housebuilders are inefficient by nature. They’re centrally run and overstaffed, with no proper accountability. But they love their inefficiency, because it keeps costs high. If costs are high, it keeps others out of the market. And these companies have been forcing prices up for years. They’ve been buying huge tracts of land and watching the value rise, and then building little boxes – the slums of the future – to squeeze more and more profit out of them.

Shah thinks their time has come, and has embarked on a project to build houses for a cost of £60k. He also decries the industry’s inability to get to grips with green building materials and methods, and to keep water usage and energy wastage down. He feels that “It’s the responsibility of government to make ecological targets part of planning requirements, forcing change ahead.”

I think that the government could do more than that. With self-builders forging ahead, trying out new technologies, materials and techniques before the rest of the industry gets their heads round even the basic ideas, they are the vanguard of green housing. And they need to be encouraged.

The government could do that in many ways, and I’m not yet au fait enough with capital gains tax, stamp duty etc. to suggest ideas. But it can’t be that hard to get creative over ways to encourage people to build their own, high-spec green homes.