It’s been a busy few days for the Grand Designs Great British Refurb Campaign.  We’ve been rushed off our feet.  First, there was the Manchester House refurbishment followed by Kevin McCloud appearing at the Tory Conference to tell them how important a programme of eco-refurbishment is for the UK’s existing house stock.  This was accompanied by the Great British Refurb Campaign’s very own Simon McWhirter appearing on the big screen as part of the Manchester House video

Then it was down to Birmingham and Grand Designs Live. On Friday afternoon Kevin appeared on stage with Colin Butfield from WWF and Marian Spain from the Energy Saving Trust as part of the Big Debate.  Both they and the audience were able to quiz Greg Clark MP, Conservative spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change (we quizzed Ed Miliband in London earlier this year). It was a lively debate with huge interest from the audience. A well informed bunch who were not going to let Greg Clark off the hook easily as they questioned him on exactly what the Tory policy was and where, in their opinion, its weaknesses lie.

Saturday saw us join forces with the 1010 Campaign to launch a competition for an eco-makover of one lucky winner’s house.  Thanks to the sponsorship of Keepmoat and support from Knauf Insulation and Solarcentury, the winning house will have a minimum of £15,000 worth of eco-retrofit carried out on their home.  There is still time to enter the competition by visiting the Home of the Future website.

And only today the Committee on Climate Change has released its first annual progress report to Parliament.  Despite all the good words and fine promises from politicians of all parties it makes for grim reading.  According to the committee the UK needs to reduce its carbon emissions by two to three per cent a year if we are going to meet our commitment of 80 per cent by 2050.  But we’re only achieving 0.5 per cent: woeful!  It shows that a step change is needed and as the committee points out a nationwide energy efficiency scheme similar in scope to the natural gas switchover of the 1960s and 70s, when fitters went door-to-door systematically equipping cookers and heaters for the new fuel is needed to bring about that step change to reduce carbon emissions from the UK’s existing housing stock.

As Paul King, Chief Executive of campaign partners UK-GBC has said, "We need two things. Firstly, a strong regulatory signal that makes it clear to everyone that homes will be required to meet high levels of energy efficiency over time, based on EPC scores. This would create the conditions for a new green refurbishment market. Secondly, we need legislation to drive through a 'Pay As You Save' style scheme, which would enable people to take action. Government expressed support for such a scheme in the recent white paper, but it won't work without legislation and that doesn't appear to be in the pipeline.

"We need to eliminate the upfront cost for the householder by allowing them to pay for energy efficiency work from the savings they make on their energy bill - and still be better off as a result. The beauty of this scheme is that it doesn't cost the Treasury a penny - it channels private sector finance into our leaky housing stock, which leaves not only home owners and the environment better off, but creates thousands of green collar jobs. This report should provide the basis for government to take these much-needed steps."

In short we need less pilot projects, running on for a year or more.  We simply don’t have the time and the crisis is too urgent.  More decisive action please.  You can help to get this message across by joining the Great British Refurb Campaign.  In doing so you’ll be showing you want action not words and you want to be able to take action in your own home now; not at some point in the future.

Stuart Singleton-White

Campaign Director