The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has said that Chancellor George Osborne missed an opportunity in his Autumn Statement last week to support the need for more energy efficient homes.

The professional association has said that the Chancellor had a perfect chance to support energy efficiency in the home and, in turn, boost growth, reduce fuel bills and create work for many builders and tradesmen.

FMB chief executive, Brian Berry, said that Osborne could have used the statement to strengthen the Green Deal.

“The Chancellor should have taken the opportunity to support the Government’s own Green Deal energy-efficiency initiative by introducing more incentives, including a lower rate of VAT on housing repair, maintenance and improvement work to encourage homeowners to take advantage of the Green Deal,” he explained.

“Local building companies are best placed for this type of work, but are reluctant to jump through the hoops involved without stronger market demand.”

He said that more needs to be done to help smaller builders to unlock opportunities on smaller building sites or stalled smaller developments, “so that the thousands of small and medium-sized firms can boost the industry's production capacity.”