A new timetable on the Department of Communities and Local Government’s website reveals a six month delay on EPCs for the majority of public and commercial buildings. It states that only buildings with a floor area more than 10,000m2 will be required to produce an EPC in April 2008, while it will be a further six months untill they are required for all remaining dwellings. 
 
Jenny Holland, parliamentary coordinator for the Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE) told B&E online the decision is regrettable but not a surprise.
 
She said: “The delay is highly regrettable but we have known it was coming for some time.”
 
Under the European directive, the only circumstance to which it allows a member state to delay the implementation was if it had insufficient qualified experts to implement the provision fully. However, Holland believes that in this case, the decision isn’t justified.
 
She said: “We’ve queried that because it hasn’t been to our understanding with the numbers of trained energy assessors knocking about.”
 
Despite the delay, a spokesperson from the UK Green Building Council told B&E online that the most important thing is that they work properly.
 
He said: “It is unfortunate they’ve had a difficult introduction and I think that’s been related to the troubles of the Home Information Packs. It is unfortunate that the credibility has been damaged. Clearly the government has decided that there needs to be a delay to make these work properly. And frankly the fact that they are both robust and credible is more important that a delay.