Scorecard: Standards
Labour
- Proposed regulation to set new energy efficiency standard in the private rented sector from 2015.
All social housing to reach higher energy standard by 2020. Plan to introduce new regulation to improve protection for tenants and raise the bar on energy efficiency for private landlords. Government will consult on regulating the installation of standard energy efficiency measures to make it a condition of renting out a property, at the earliest from 2015. Government will work to improve marketing and support for landlords.
Regulation of the social rented sector – a new ‘Warm Homes’ standard covering the building fabric and heating system to be reached by all social housing by 2020. The Warm Homes standard will raise the energy efficiency of social housing from around SAP 59 to at least SAP 70. SAP stands for ‘Standard Assessment Procedure’ and it is a measure out of 100 for the energy efficiency of a property. To protect against fuel poverty, properties need to reach SAP 80 and overall the GBR campaign thinks SAP 70 is not ambitious enough.
The new Energy company obligation will be specifically targeted at measures to improve the energy performance of social housing and provide subsidised energy performance measures for the most vulnerable and lower income households living in private sector housing.
Social landlords will be encouraged to install renewable electricity generating technology.
No minimum standards identified for private sector homes and it is not clear what an “eco-upgrade” will be.
Conservatives
- None
No minimum standards identified for any homes, social or private. No assessment required to be carried out to access Green Deal financing.
Liberal Democrats
- None but homes will require an assessment to access finance
No minimum standards but home energy assessments will be carried out as a requirement of accessing finance.
This multi-manifesto analysis explicitly does not recommend or endorse any one political housing policy over another. All the Great British Refurb campaign partners are politically neutral.
The GBR campaign ran from 2009 to 2012 and ended with the passing of the green deal legislation.
Here are our successes
The campaign was set up three years ago with the ultimate aim of making it easier for owners to eco-refurb their homes. And to a massive extent we achieved just that. The Green Deal, which is a government policy which will enables all of us to refurb our homes with no upfront costs is a game changer and we are proud to have been a catalyst and indeed on occasion cattle prod to that happening. So now when the landscape of home refurb is changing dramatically, it is time for us to take a back seat too and let the politicking end and the real world Great British Refurb commence.
