"Exactly ten years ago (on 12 June 1998) Nick Raynsford, MP (then junior Minister for DETR) delivered a paper at the CIB World Congress in Gavle, Sweden regarding the UK's approach to sustainable development in construction. During his speech, he outlined a vision for a sustainable future in which the needs of social progress were levelled with environmental protection and economic growth and stable levels of employment.

"He outlined one idea in particular which, ten years on, strikes a resounding note. That of a National programme of CO2 reductions from new and existing buildingsÉ ringing any bells? Well a decade on and Nick Raynsford, MP now the Chairman of the National Centre for Excellence in Housing, is continuing to champion a sustainable housing sector.

"I applaud magazines like sustain who have been championing the 'Green Agenda' over the past decade and I welcome their contribution to the debate over the next ten years. And let's hope with champions like Nick and others finding ways to enable industry and policy setters to engage and find solutions that provide well-designed sustainable and affordable housing for general consumption.

"It's my ambition that sustainability and good design will, over the next ten years become so inextricably linked that we couldn't imagine one without the other."

Anna Scothern, Director, National Centre for Excellence in Housing