New rules demanding buildings are energy efficient have been slammed as “too weak” by a green energy trade group.

Today the Government announced new buildings must have energy saving kit so homes emit 6% less carbon and other buildings such as shops and pubs emit 9% less carbon than the 2010 benchmark.

This has been criticised as “a failure of ambition” with targets set lower than the “relatively weak proposals” originally put forward. The Department for Communities and Local Government had looked at targets of 8-26% for domestic properties and 11-20% for non-domestic properties.

Paul Thompson, the Renewable Energy Association’s head of policy said: “As new build is excluded from the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (except self-build), industry was counting on strong carbon targets in the Building Regulations to incentivise new build green heating.

“This is a real missed opportunity, as it is often much cheaper to install renewable technologies during construction rather than retrofit,” he added.