Government Sustainability

The government has set itself an ambitious target to cut the UK’s carbon emissions by 80 per cent by the year 2050 but even this target may not enough according to the recent climate science at the March meeting of the International Scientific Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen. With 27 per cent of the UK’s CO2 emissions coming from energy use in homes, action is clearly needed in this sector if the 80 per cent target is to be achieved. Several studies using computer modelling and scenarios have shown that deep cuts in CO2 emissions from the UK’s housing stock are indeed possible, but that existing policies will not take us far enough.
    
It is not enough to be working towards zero carbon new homes, important though that work is. Refurbishment of the existing housing stock to advanced, low-carbon standards is needed as well. A small number of demonstration projects across Britain already show that it is technically feasible to achieve large enough reductions in CO2 emissions in the existing stock while maintaining comfortable, healthy homes as well as reducing the impact on householders from future energy price rises.

Energy use
The government is currently consulting on its longer-term ambitions for how we use energy in our homes and businesses. The phrase ‘longer term’ is important because anyone hoping that the government might be anxious to transform

Britain’s existing housing stock to make it greener and more energy efficient will have to wait.
    
Even more alarming is the fact that the delivery mechanism to deliver its ambition to upgrade all homes by 2030 to make them energy efficient has yet to be worked out. All this when the construction industry is suffering its worst recession since 1980 and is in need of new areas of work and fuel poverty is on the increase with an estimated five million people now spending more than 10 per cent of their income on fuel bills.      
    
So, what is the government proposing in its draft heat and energy saving strategy? Well, its intentions are certainly laudable. Most important is the proposal for all homes to have received by 2030 a ‘whole house package’ including all cost effective energy saving measures plus renewable heat and electricity measures as appropriate.
    
In addition the government wants all lofts and cavity walls to be insulated where practical by 2015. Comprehensive information and advice is to be made available to help people make changes to save energy and save money, including the widespread availability of home energy advice by accredited advisers. So far so good but to achieve these aims the government fails to set out practical financial incentives and without these it is difficult to see how much progress can be made in the short term.

Committing to change
What is needed is a strong commitment from the Treasury to give the building industry sufficient confidence to make the necessary investments to begin to meet the green homes challenge. Investments are needed in training and skills just as much as in the development of products and supply chains. Existing  energy efficiency programmes, based on a list of ‘cost effective’ measures, need to be continued in the short term but achieving deep cuts in CO2 emissions from existing homes will require a transition from the measures-based approach towards a standard-based approach. This has far-reaching consequences in terms of the stakeholders involved in delivering the changes required and the policy framework needed to stimulate industry to innovate.
    
What we do know is that building firms, product manufacturers and suppliers could stand to tap into a new market worth between £3.5 and £6.5 billion per year if the UK developed policies, skills programmes, and financial incentives to upgrade our existing housing stock to make it greener and more energy efficient. This is the startling conclusion from the FMB’s research report ‘Building A Greener Britain-Transforming the UK’s Existing Housing Stock’, prepared by the Environmental Change Institute, at Oxford University. Gavin Killip, author of the report, argues that what is urgently needed to create this new market to upgrade Britain’s housing stock is a clear policy signal from government to start a process of innovation, skills development, and capacity building in the construction industry.

Stakeholders involved
The stakeholders involved in refurbishment are quite different from those involved in new housebuilding, with the smaller businesses in the construction industry being typically involved in repair, maintenance and improvement. Over £23 billion per year is spent on repair, maintenance and improvement works to existing housing, and much of this is a missed opportunity in terms of low-carbon refurbishment. Energy performance has begun to be visible in the housing market with the introduction of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), and the UK has an opportunity to build policies, skills programmes and financial incentives around the EPC.
    
One key to minimising costs and the disruption involved in these more substantial refurbishment works is to seize every opportunity. Where householders or landlords are undertaking other works, the SME construction firms who generally carry out this work need to be ready and equipped to offer low-carbon options as part of that service. Fortunately, firms are now beginning to be aware of this potential new market.

Large scale delivery
The FMB’s report recognises that for builders to deliver low-carbon refurbishments on a large scale, the sector’s capacity to do this kind of work needs to be developed, almost from scratch. Research interviews carried out for the FMB report revealed that the work to build capacity in the sector needs to take account of established custom and practice otherwise the endeavour will result in rejection by most practitioners.
    
This insight is captured in the idea of ‘buildability’ – a term intended to capture the reality of how builders operate and the fact that, whenever refurbishment is carried out, the contractors have to be confident of their ability to do the work and achieve satisfactory results, both for themselves and for their clients. If a low-carbon refurbishment strategy can be devised in such a way that it takes account of the need for ‘buildability’, then the strategy has the greatest chance of acceptance by the SME construction sector. Without it, it is likely to be ignored or subverted on the ground.
    
With a potential market of several million pounds for builders the FMB is doing all it can to ensure that a greener Britain is not only a sustainable one but one that offers new business opportunities. This is the way to build the new greener Britain and so meet our climate change obligations. All we need is the initial fiscal stimulus from the government to kick-start the process and translate its ambitions into reality.   

For more information
Web: www.buildingagreenerbritain.com