Construction is the world’s biggest carbon emitter, yet Labour still refuses to tackle it
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
Simon Jenkins confronts a critical blind spot in climate policy: the construction industry, which accounts for 37% of global emissions according to the UN Environment Programme, receives far less scrutiny than oil companies or automotive manufacturers. Despite this staggering environmental impact, Britain’s Labour government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves continues policies that effectively subsidize carbon-intensive new construction while penalizing the refurbishment of existing buildings through VAT regulations.
Jenkins argues that Britain’s approach prioritizes quantity over sustainability, with plans to build 1.5 million new homes including carbon-costly new towns in the countryside. He contends that better regulation of existing housing stock—addressing issues like frozen council tax bands, empty properties, and embodied carbon released through demolition—would be more environmentally responsible. The article concludes by questioning whether the government’s renewable energy initiatives, such as massive solar farms in rural Oxfordshire, can truly offset emissions from construction booms that bulldoze local planning democracy.
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Construction’s Hidden Climate Impact
The building and construction sector produces 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions, surpassing any other single industry.
Perverse Tax Incentives
Britain’s VAT system penalizes refurbishment with 20% tax while exempting polluting new construction, effectively subsidizing carbon emissions.
Mismanaged Existing Housing Stock
One million homes sit empty in England while frozen council tax bands discourage downsizing and 50,000 reusable buildings are demolished yearly.
Labour’s Aggressive Building Agenda
Keir Starmer pledges 1.5 million new homes and threatens to bulldoze local planning objections, prioritizing development speed over environmental considerations.
Embodied Carbon Crisis
Demolishing reusable buildings releases massive amounts of embodied carbon stored in existing materials like cement, steel, and concrete.
Retrofitting vs New Construction
Converting and refurbishing existing buildings offers more sustainable housing solutions than carbon-costly new towns and greenfield developments.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
The Construction Industry’s Protected Status Despite Climate Impact
Jenkins argues that construction—the world’s largest carbon emitter at 37% of global emissions—receives disproportionately little climate policy attention compared to other polluting industries. Britain’s Labour government actively subsidizes new construction through VAT exemptions while penalizing sustainable refurbishment, demonstrating that powerful construction lobbies influence policy more than environmental concerns. This critique matters because achieving meaningful climate progress requires confronting uncomfortable truths about politically protected industries.
Purpose
To Critique Policy Contradictions and Advocate for Sustainable Alternatives
Jenkins writes to expose the hypocrisy in Labour’s climate stance and advocate for refurbishment-focused housing policy. By contrasting the harsh criticism directed at oil companies with construction’s protected status, he challenges readers to recognize selective environmentalism. His detailed examination of perverse incentives—VAT structures, frozen council taxes, unnecessary demolitions—aims to shift the conversation from “build, baby, build” toward “convert, retrofit, reuse,” ultimately arguing for housing solutions that respect both environmental limits and local democratic input.
Structure
Provocative Opening → Evidence-Based Critique → Alternative Solutions → Broader Implications
The article opens with provocative rhetoric positioning construction as climate activism’s “elephant in the room,” immediately establishing the counterintuitive central claim. Jenkins then marshals evidence from UN reports and government policy to demonstrate construction’s disproportionate emissions and protected status. The middle section systematically dismantles Labour’s approach by examining specific policy failures and quantifying waste (1 million empty homes, 50,000 unnecessary demolitions). Finally, he broadens to regional inequality concerns and democratic accountability, concluding with vivid imagery of an 11-mile solar farm to illustrate how mitigation efforts cannot offset fundamentally flawed development priorities.
Tone
Indignant, Sardonic & Confrontational
Jenkins employs biting sarcasm (“You can damn oil companies, abuse cars, insult nimbys, kill cows, befoul art galleries. But you must never, ever criticise the worst offender of all”) to highlight construction’s immunity from criticism. His tone combines frustration with institutional capture (“putty in the hands of Britain’s powerful construction and oil lobbies”) and moral urgency about climate inaction. The writing maintains intellectual rigor through specific data while using vivid, memorable phrases like “bulldoze local planners” and “shocking abuse of the last shred of local democracy” to convey anger at policy contradictions and democratic erosion.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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Extremely poor in quality; shockingly bad or wicked; horrifyingly inadequate or incompetent in a way that deserves strong condemnation.
“Britain’s regulation of its existing building stock is atrocious.”
Extremely large in size, extent, or degree; of extraordinary magnitude that inspires awe or overwhelms the imagination; massive beyond normal proportions.
“The release of their embodied carbon is colossal.”
In an aggressive, intense, or powerfully determined manner; with extreme force, passion, or violence; showing strong, uncompromising resistance or commitment.
“The housebuilding lobby will fiercely resist any changes.”
A statement, slogan, or principle that is frequently repeated and widely accepted, often becoming an unquestioned orthodoxy that guides thinking or policy.
“The dominant cry is still build, baby, build. Rarely is it ‘convert’, ‘retrofit’ or ‘reuse’. There are plenty of reasons we should be wary of this simple mantra.”
Completely and absolutely; to the fullest extent possible without exception or qualification; in a total, thoroughgoing, or unconditional manner.
“It will utterly destroy this area, passing through 15 villages and stretching for 11 miles.”
To pacify or placate someone by giving in to their demands; to satisfy or relieve concerns through concessions, often implying unwise compromise.
“Bulldozing all sense of town and country planning to appease a commercial lobby is a shocking abuse of the last shred of local democracy.”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to the article, the construction and building sector produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any other single industry globally.
2How does Britain’s current VAT policy create a perverse incentive regarding building practices?
3Which sentence best captures Jenkins’s criticism of how construction receives different treatment than other polluting industries?
4Evaluate the following statements about Britain’s housing situation according to the article:
Council tax bands in Britain have remained unchanged since 1991, discouraging people from downsizing.
Labour’s plan to build 1.5 million new homes focuses primarily on brownfield development in northern towns.
Approximately 50,000 reusable buildings are demolished in Britain each year despite being suitable for refurbishment.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5What can be inferred about Jenkins’s view of the relationship between Labour’s construction policy and genuine climate action?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Embodied carbon refers to greenhouse gas emissions generated during the production, transportation, and construction of building materials that remain stored in structures like cement, steel, and concrete. Jenkins emphasizes embodied carbon because demolishing 50,000 reusable buildings annually releases this stored carbon into the atmosphere unnecessarily. When developers tear down perfectly functional buildings instead of refurbishing them, they waste not only the structure itself but also all the carbon that was emitted to create those materials originally, making demolition doubly destructive from a climate perspective.
Britain charges 20% VAT on refurbishing existing buildings but exempts new construction from VAT entirely. This tax policy makes carbon-intensive new building financially advantageous compared to environmentally-friendly refurbishment. Since new construction generates far more emissions than renovation—requiring fresh cement, steel, and concrete production plus demolition of existing structures—the VAT exemption effectively rewards the more polluting option. Jenkins calls this a subsidy because the government forgoes tax revenue on activities that produce 37% of global emissions while taxing the sustainable alternative, creating perverse financial incentives that encourage environmental damage.
Jenkins advocates shifting from “build, baby, build” to “convert, retrofit, reuse.” He proposes reforming council tax bands frozen since 1991 to encourage downsizing, addressing one million empty homes in England, incentivizing refurbishment by removing VAT penalties, preventing unnecessary demolitions of the 50,000 reusable buildings destroyed yearly, prioritizing brownfield development in struggling northern towns over greenfield sites in the south-east, and allowing villages to grow organically rather than forcing giant developments. These solutions would reduce carbon emissions while addressing regional inequality and preserving local democratic input in planning decisions.
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This article is classified as Advanced difficulty. It employs sophisticated vocabulary (embodied carbon, colossal, fiercely, appease), requires understanding of complex policy mechanisms (VAT structures, council tax bands), navigates multiple interconnected arguments (climate policy, housing regulation, regional development, democratic accountability), and demands readers recognize rhetorical strategies like sarcasm and implicit contradictions. The text assumes familiarity with British political figures and institutions while requiring readers to synthesize information about emissions data, tax policy, and urban planning to follow Jenkins’s critique of Labour’s contradictory approach to climate and construction.
Jenkins criticizes Keir Starmer for “harking back to the 1940s and 50s in planning new towns in the countryside,” characterizing this as “the most carbon-costly, car-reliant form of development imaginable.” Post-war Britain built planned new towns in greenfield locations to address housing shortages, but these developments occurred before climate concerns and required extensive car infrastructure. By evoking this outdated planning model, Jenkins argues Labour is applying mid-20th century solutions to 21st century problems, ignoring both the carbon emissions from building on previously undeveloped land and the ongoing transportation emissions such car-dependent communities generate, making them fundamentally incompatible with climate goals.
The Ultimate Reading Course covers 9 RC question types: Multiple Choice, True/False, Multi-Statement T/F, Text Highlight, Fill in the Blanks, Matching, Sequencing, Error Spotting, and Short Answer. This comprehensive coverage prepares you for any reading comprehension format you might encounter.
