GBRC

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:

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. 

The grand unveiling of our house happened just four weeks after the start of the eco-refurbishments. Representatives of the press, campaign supporters, and competition sponsors joined in with the celebrations at our house, as Campaign Director Simon McWhirter handed us back the keys to our 75% more energy efficient home.

No sooner than Cat and I had spent our first weekend in perfect comfort, I had been whisked over to Earl's Court in London for the 2010 EcoBuild conference. Speaking on a panel with Great British Refurb Campaign representative, Simon McWhirter, and representatives from Campaign sponsors Keepmoat, and Knauf Insulation, Journalist and BBC Radio 4's presenter of the Today Programme, Justin Webb, chaired a packed theatre discussion about eco-home refurbishment. Our house, The Home of the Future, was presented as a real example of the energy savings, emissions reductions and improvements to the quality of living than can be achieved in a typical Victorian terrace.

Are you someone who likes the idea of generating your electricity, but just not ready to take the plunge?

Well, you're not alone. But if you've been thinking about solar for a while, now might be the time to look a bit further..Did you know that from now until April of 2010, homeowners can take advantage of two overlapping Government incentives encouraging people to generate their own electricity?  Households that install a solar PV system in this time will be able to get their hands on a grant of up to £2,500 and also benefit from £1,000 a year when the “clean energy cash back” scheme, announced in the recent Government consultation paper, is launched. 

Earlier this month temperatures in Doncaster reached 17 degrees. Normally, I wouldn’t give that a second thought, except we are now in November and the weather folk on TV are calling it ‘unusually high’.

Now, I’m no expert on the science of climate change, so I’m not even going to attempt to make a link between these ‘unusually high’ temperatures and global warming. But, the very reaction of those charged with dispensing our daily weather bulletins does make you think.

The Great British Refurb has been busily telling Government to help consumers make sustainable refurbishment affordable. We have used lots of different methods to get our messages across from petitions to No 10 Downing Street to public forms with political leaders to Parliamentary events with leading MPs. And our message is getting through.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change recently asked the Energy Saving Trust to pilot several innovative finance plans to cover the upfront costs of more expensive, energy efficiency and microgeneration measures. Many of us are already doing the easy stuff like cavity wall insulation, loft top up and low energy lighting. It’s the more expensive measures which are out of reach for a lot of us.

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.