UK Government Drops Energy Efficiency For Home Extensions

06/08/2009, 11:15 pm
Filed under: Green Build

In a U-turn that has infuriated the building sector, the Government has dropped plans to implement stringent energy efficiency requirements on home extensions and major refurbishments.

The draft consultation on Part L of the Building Regulations for 2010, which had promised to force properties undergoing ‘consequential improvements’ – such as extensions – to also implement energy efficiency measures, contains no such provision.

This is not the first time that the ‘consequential improvement’ clause has been dropped from building regulations – former Housing Minister Yvette Cooper removed the clause from the 2006 update to Part L Building Regulations.

At a meeting in London on Wednesday, John Fiennes, director for sustainable buildings and climate change at the Department for Communities and Local Government, said the clause had been dropped to give new Housing Minister John Healy time to consider all the options. However, there is no firm data for when the clause could be reconsidered. Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, warned at the same meeting that failure to push forward on this measure will leave the UK lagging behind the rest of Europe. The incoming Swedish leadership at the EU plan to recast European buildings directives to include consequential improvements, he said.

One the stumbling blocks appears to the complexity and interrelations of existing legislation. The Code for Sustainable Homes will also be updated in 2010 and energy efficiency requirements must be aligned to those proposed in the updated Part L regulations. Add to that the ongoing consultation on the Standard Assessment Procedure for the Energy Rating of Dwellings (SAP) and you have a recipe for confusion – and inaction, say industry experts.

For more information go to www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningandbuilding/partlf2010consultation

http://www.aecb.net/ also has some better news.

UK Government Increases Funds For Energy Efficiency Home Makeovers To £3.5 Billion

The UK Government recently announced plans to increase investment in measures designed to improve the energy efficiency of the country’s homes to £3.5 billion. The plans will increase energy companies’ investment in the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) scheme and introduce a new Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP). The changes to CERT will bring an increase in the carbon emissions reduction target of 20% and in the amount that energy companies can earmark for energy efficiency technologies such as microgeneration and solid-wall insulation (from 6% to 10%). The measures that can be offered under CERT will now include home energy advice and audits, but direct mail outs of low-energy bulbs will no longer be eligible.

Meanwhile, the CESP – which will begin this autumn – will help up to 100 community schemes provide energy makeovers to households in low-income areas. The programme will promote partnership between local authorities, community groups and energy companies, who will be obliged to take part for the first time.

For more information go to http://decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/consultations/closed/closed.aspx