Build Magazine August 2015

Build Magazine 33 In an unexpected and controversial move the Treasury last month canned plans to make all new homes carbon neutral from 2016, reneg- ing on a commitment made in 2008, and cast- ing doubt on the sincerity of the government’s ambitions to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. The announcement was a blow for the industry, as was the news that plans are also being shelved for the roll-out of zero carbon standards for non-residential buildings; which had been due to see the light of day in 2019. When the plans were put in place, the government’s aim was to improve the energy efficiency of both residential and commercial real estate by imposing technical building standards that would position the UK on a par with its Nordic and northern European counterparts. The benefits go beyond purely the environmental; with these efforts to control demand for energy expected to reduce fuel poverty and bring down energy expenditure for hundreds of thousands of homes every year. For non-domestic buildings, the strategy was to encourage energy efficient design. July’s U-turn came as part of the government’s report, ‘Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation’, and said that scrapping the regulations was designed to “reduce net regulations on housebuilders”. However, while this may be considered positive news in the short term for both non domestic and domestic developers, it can only harm the prospect of long term savings for the end user. The decision appears not to consider the missed long-term opportunities in further innovation and manufacturing, in particular low carbon products and services; employment growth and research, and could ultimately hinder UK’s leadership place within the international forum too, particularly at the Paris 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference at the end of the year. Earlier this year, the outcome of the Housing Standards Review and the subsequent Deregulation Act 2015 saw the removal of the Code for Sustainable Homes standard on new housing. At the time, it was understood that housing developments fewer than 10 units would be exempt from energy efficiency standards but now everything else will need to comply via Part L of the building regulations. It has also been reported that the Department for Communities & Local Government is look- ing to discard the zero carbon commitment for non-domestic buildings too. The decision means there is now no intention to proceed with the zero carbon Allowable Solutions carbon offsetting scheme, and the forecasted energy efficiency drive in 2016 via technical building standards. This has serious implications for a property building sector which has invested heavily in meeting the requirements first put in place in 2006 by the then chancellor Gordon Brown. The UK was one of the first countries to put in place the zero carbon homes poli- cy, designed to support the government’s zero carbon commitment to work towards the Climate Change Act’s goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. The removal of the carbon neutral homes pledge undermines the last seven years of innovation and industry progression towards energy efficient design to ulti- mately deliver zero carbon buildings, and casts serious doubt as to how the Climate Change Act’s objective will be achieved. In its place, the government has instead announced it “will keep the energy standards under review, recognising that existing measures to increase energy efficiency of new buildings should be allowed time to become established”. There’s still every hope that the zero carbon target could be delivered in the long term, but without a sound base from which to build, and the scale for improve- ment, the U-turn has merely served to create uncertainty in the market, and di- minish confidence in our carbon neutral future, right when it is needed most. Carbon Emission U-Turn Can Only Create Market Uncertainty Eco Building By Neelum Mohammed, Associate Director in Sustainable Engineering at CBRE