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Building more energy efficient homes and breaking the historical reliance on fossil fuels is far more than a passing fad or a potential vote winner. Schemes such as EcoHomes attempt to encourage housebuilders to adopt the latest environmentally friendly techniques in new developments, while significant grants and advice are available to help improve the energy performance of their existing homes, whether homeowners or landlords.
One crucial source of advice is the Energy Saving Trust (EST), which aims to encourage sustainable energy use and by doing so cut carbon emissions. The organisation has a broad remit, working with individuals, businesses and both the public and private sector to achieve its aims. Head of community partnerships Catriona Reeby is responsible for the organisation’s work with housing providers. “We’ve worked with local authorities for 10 years now on improving their existing homes, as well as working within the communities themselves,” she says. “We also work with developers to improve areas like insulation in none council housing, and about four years ago we extended our work to Housing Associations, with whom we work in a similar way to local authorities.”
This work includes offering free advice via the EST information line as well as providing case studies, briefings and workshops for interested parties and acting as a contact point to put those who seek to achieve best practice in touch with those who already have. Reeby says more direction from government could help her cause.
“The problem with schemes like EcoHomes is that too much is open to interpretation, plus of course there is no national regulation to force compliance,” she says. “We have developed our own best practice standard, which goes far beyond EcoHomes and would have real lasting effects, and just as building regulations are a legal requirement for all builders, we hope that this will become the new legal requirement for environmental practice. If we’re going to say ‘let’s make a low carbon community,’ then lets show we mean it by ending the voluntary side!”
Despite Reeby’s reservations, she is keen to acknowledge that good work is being done. The London Borough of Merton, for example, became the first authority in the UK to take advantage of new planning powers to demand environmentally responsible development with a policy which states “All new non-residential developments above a threshold of 1,000m2 will be expected to incorporate renewable energy production equipment to provide at least 10% of predicted energy requirements.”
Of course, many developers are already designing such equipment into their schemes, but Merton has taken the lead by making it a planning requirement, meaning that developments will remain illegal until the renewables clause is signed off. Croydon has now taken up the baton by instituting the same policy for all development in the borough, including residential. Significantly, both councils agree that, although the demands have increased the cost of development, there has been no significant downturn in planning applications.
Of course, neither fuel poverty or the energy crisis can be solved overnight, nor can the twin dangers be eradicated by the housing sector alone. With the right mix of government regulation, commitment from contractors and developers and the community at large, however, we can move in the right direction. This country has a long way to go before it catches up with the likes of Sweden, a country which emits less carbon dioxide per year than the its biggest coal-fired power station alone, but there are signs that it is heading in the right direction. Schemes such as EcoHomes have shown the way forward for responsible contractors and developers, it is up to the industry to take up the mantle for sustainable development.
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