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Further lowering of zero carbon target rumoured |
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3 Jun 2014, 7:34 PM
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The aspiration for all new homes to be "zero carbon" from 2016, introduced by the previous government, looks likely to be dropped in favour of allowing developers to offset carbon emissions.
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Reports in the media today suggest that the Queen's speech tomorrow will contain a plan to force firms to contribute to carbon abatement schemes if homes do not meet requisite levels of sustainability once built, a process known as 'allowable solutions'.
Such a move would represent a further weakening of the proposed standards, which were originally envisaged as a means of ensuring all new buildings meet extremely high energy efficiency and environmental standards. The proposed green legislation has been criticised by the volume housebuilders, who claim that they would incur additional costs. The green building community, and the UK Green Building Council, have argued that the zero carbon target represents a vital measure for lowering energy bills and limiting carbon emissions from the UK's inefficient housing stock, which accounts for about 17 per cent of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions.
The new bill would reportedly ensure builders only have to meet Level Four of the new Code for Sustainable homes, rather than Level Five, which is the accepted standard for "zero carbon" homes.
The move effectively means builders can fulfil their obligations by building a home with emissions 44 per cent lower than 2006 levels and then contributing to green schemes at a rate of between £38 and £90 per tonne of carbon. Moreover, all small housing developments are exempted from the standards entirely.
Philip Sellwood, chief executive at the Energy Saving Trust, says, “It's encouraging that the promise of Allowable Solutions for new-build homes is set to be announced in the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday which will help house builders achieve the zero carbon homes standard. We look forward to hearing more details about this on Wednesday.
“However, we are concerned about suggestions regarding changes to the zero carbon regulations. As we grapple with our existing ailing and inefficient housing, still amongst the leakiest in Europe, the last avoidable thing we need is to have to deal with yet more homes in future years that were not built to high standards of energy efficiency. Unfortunately these changes to the zero carbon home regulations will only serve to encourage the building of lower standard new-build homes and make it tougher for the UK to achieve the 80 per cent carbon reduction from buildings. This short-term vision will only serve to damage consumers in the long-term who are stuck with new homes that are not up to the highest standards of energy efficiency. This will ultimately cost the householder money because of escalating fuel bills and prevent them from living in the warmest and healthiest home possible."
The government is likely to face further criticism from green campaigners that it is rolling back its environmental plans at the behest of traditional business lobby groups, following the weakening of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) insulation scheme last year after lobbying from several large energy companies.
Analysis by the Association for the Conservation of Energy last month calculated that the £150m Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF), introduced from this month, will only replace 15 per cent of the emissions reductions lost through the changes to ECO.
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| Positive review of this story |
Riccardo Pusceddu  |
4 Jun 2014, 2:16 PM |
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going backwards instead of acknowledging that there are technologies that can actually achieve a positive production of energy, a standard called PlusEnergy, the Government is going backwards allowing more pollution
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