Success for the Great British Refurb!  For the last year we have been calling for the Government to introduce financial incentives such as Stamp Duty or Council Tax rebates for people who improve their home energy efficiency.

On the 30th June MPs spent more than six hours debating energy efficiency issues in the House of Commons and the Green Deal featured heavily as part of the debate.  The full transcript of the debate can be read here but we've put together a summary of the highlights of the debate, relating to low carbon home refurbishment:

 

Late last year, Emma won a £1000 worth of Eco- retrofitting of her home. It was part of the 10:10 campaign and Great British Refurb campaign competition. In this blog, Emma tells of her refurbishment experience.

I’m feeling quite positive about the coalition and what it could mean for greener homes in the UK.  During the fraught talks on those crucial days post-election as the new coalition was formed, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had plenty of big issues that they disagreed on, not least of all nuclear power.  Despite this, there does seem to be an element of consensus on environmental issues between the parties and they have agreed on policies around a smart grid, renewable energy, electric cars, dropping the third runway at Heathrow and a Green Investment Bank. 

Of most importance to me is the commitment from the new coalition that they will introduce home energy improvements paid for by the savings from lower energy bills. As is apparent from Campaign Director, Simon McWhirter’s pre-election analysis, a Pay As You Save (PAYS) style mechanism for funding low carbon home refurbishment featured in all three political party manifestos ahead of the election (read more about how PAYS would work here) and it is great news that it has made it through into the coalition’s latest statement.  In fact the Tories have been switched on to the massive opportunity to cut carbon emissions and people’s energy bills through PAYS since they first announced their so-called ‘Green Deal’ at a UK-GBC event last April.  

As UK-GBC’s previous report on PAYS highlighted, funding low carbon home refurbishment through PAYS doesn’t require loads of public sector investment to get it off the ground which makes it an easy win for the new government as they struggle to reduce the massive national deficit and cut spending. 

The first announcement on climate change to come from the new coalition was a commitment to cut emissions from government departments by 10% in the next year (a great boost to the 10:10 campaign) so clearly the new administration is switched onto the benefits of energy efficiency.  

We need to see much more detail on the new government’s climate change policies and ideally the coalition must deliver a coherent strategy for tackling emissions from all types of existing buildings, including homes, government buildings  and commercial properties.  With the ministers at the Department of Energy and Climate Change settling into their new positions, let’s hope that the new Secretary of State, Chris Huhne (Lib Dem and former Shadow Environment Secretary), has the opportunity to realise the Lib Dem manifesto vision for a ‘zero carbon Britain’. 

Ellie Austin
Campaigns Officer
UK Green Building Council

The election is providing an interesting backdrop to our week at Grand Designs Live. The Great British Refurb campaign is here amongst the solar panels and sliding door exhibits to get thousands of people to support us in lobbying the new government on policies to support a mass low carbon retrofit of UK's homes.

One of the first questions I was asked from a couple who came over to the stand was- 'how can you be planning to lobby a government when you don't know who it's going to be yet?' Fair question. There are lots we don’t know and even after May 6th it will be a few weeks till we know exactly what we're dealing with but there's one opportunity we have no matter what happens with the election.

Whether the new government's motivation is reducing householders bills, protecting against expected energy price rises, meeting the UK's climate change targets or stimulating the UK's economy, kicking off a mass homes retrofit programme should be high on the list of anyone in their first year in office. There's no other big way of tackling climate change that is likely to be as popular with voters, that requires no new technological inventions and can be well underway within the first phase of a new government. In essence how this plays out will tell you how serious the new government is about climate change- if they don't seize the opportunity with a mass homes retrofit then I, for one, will be pretty concerned about how they're going to manage to make the UK a low carbon economy. However if our new government does launch a great british refurb plan in the first year they may find the thousands of people we're speaking to this week ready to take part.

If refurbishing a home wasn't complicated enough, we now have to choose our materials with greater care and attention. You could see this as a limitation, but for me it’s an opportunity to create a style that embodies the philosophies of sustainability.
  Luckily, there are ever more interesting materials to choose from as I found out when designing the Eco home exhibition at the Geffrye Museum in East London. It struck me that when designing eco homes there are masculine and feminine sides to consider.

The “masculine” focuses on the technical aspects involved in making it more efficient and practical things like new boilers, water efficient toilets and A-rated appliances.
By contrast there is a “feminine” element involved in creating a beautiful and nurturing home. Think fabrics, furniture and dressings.

This week the Chancellor published the Budget for 2010 which received some pretty mixed reactions. In terms of the green measures, there were a range of announcements including support for the renewables industry, both small and large, some extra cash to help low carbon businesses and green manufacturers, plus some boosts to promote energy efficiency.

For me, the most interesting announcements were around a so-called ‘Green Investment Bank’.  Here at UK-GBC we were very encouraged to hear Government restate their commitment to creating a £2billion Green Investment Bank with a mandate to invest in low-carbon infrastructure.  Essentially Government is proposing that they will invest £1billion themselves which will be matched by the private sector; together the cash will be used to invest in major low-carbon infrastructure projects, particularly in the transport and large renewable energy sectors and should – crucially – be used to leverage further private sector money on a much larger scale. Leveraging capital for hugely complex low-carbon infrastructure is crucial for the renewable future of the UK but we believe the GIB has the potential to bring about a low carbon revolution for homeowners as well.