A GOVERNMENT sleight of hand' will undermine green building if nothing is done, says eco campaigner and builder Giles Frampton.

Mr Frampton, head of green building firm Econstruction in Bridport, has started a petition to get the government to live up to its April budget promises.

Mr Frampton said the in budget the then chancellor Gordon Brown said he would abolish stamp duty on zero carbon rated homes thinking it would cost him around £15 million in lost revenue.

Mr Frampton said: "A lot of developers like us and the really big boys said that's a great idea, let's do it' and then the government realised it could cost them billions."

Then the wording on the Draft Statutory Instrument (DSI) changed, he said, and now homes have to have their own wind turbine, or equivalent, on site rather than being able to sign up to off-site renewable energy sources.

"It is a nonsense. It is at best a misguided piece of well-meaning legislation that will do more harm than good, or at worst a genuine attempt by central Government to limit the loss of stamp duty receipts from too many zero carbon homes. Oliver Letwin MP has responded to our concerns by writing to the chancellor asking for clarification. We await a reply from the Treasury," said Mr Frampton.

"It has been dismissed as a typo by the treasury, but the treasury don't make typos. It is a sleight of hand on behalf of the treasury to stop anybody, unless they have a wind turbine literally in their garden. It will have a really negative effect. The government has had all the benefit of the publicity and now they are trying to draw back from it," he added.

Meanwhile Mr Frampton has started an on-line petition at: //petitions .pm.gov.uk/carbonzerohomes/ In his letter to the treasury Mr Letwin asks: "I note that the definition of allowable electricity generation excludes accredited external renewables of the sort the Code for Sustainable Homes allows.

"I note that this will make it extraordinarily difficult for any significant number of homes to qualify for the stamp duty exemption.

"I would be grateful if you could confirm as a matter of some urgency whether this is the treasury's intention, or whether an error has been made in the drafting."