“Warm Homes, Greener Homes”
For those seeking a condensed overview of the DECC’s proposed Household Energy Management Strategy (HEMS), read on.
HEMS sets out the Government’s strategy for homeowners and tenants wanting to do more to “save energy in their home or generate their own clean energy.”
Key target dates
The Housing Energy Management Strategy spans the next ten years up to 2020.
By 2013: insulate 6m homes
From 2013: new impositions on energy companies after CERT expires in 2012.
From 2015: accelerate measures such as solid wall insulation and heat pumps.
Develop supply chains.
Develop Pay As You Save finance market.
By 2016: complete installations of all remaining loft and cavity wall insulation where practical.
2020: cut carbon emissions from homes by 29%
2030: every home, in every street should benefit from measures to improve energy efficiency in their homes.
It puts the finer detail on the Pay As You Save (PAYS) scheme, putting the cap on loans secured against homes at £10,000; an increase from the early proposal of circa £6,500.
Local authorities and energy companies
It wants to oblige energy companies to “support householders in energy saving – including free upgrades for vulnerable households and subsidised upgrades for many others.”
It also wants to oblige energy companies to work with participating (i.e., volunteering) local authorities which have a Local Carbon Framework in place after CERT expires in 2012.
Over time, local authorities in England and Wales will receive gas and electricity consumption data from energy companies (initially from 2008) so they can monitor changes in energy usage and better target their own strategies for improving energy efficiency.
Local authorities will be free to offer homeowners incentives to improve, such as Council Tax rebates.
It also proposes to put in place an “enabling framework of policy and financial support” to encourage the development of district heating. DECC will clarify the role local authorities can play to this end.
Plans are set out for a new “universal advice service”, encompassing the web, telephone and home visits (HEAs and others), as well as new standards for both installers and the products they use to establish confidence in the work they carry out.
65,000 new jobs
It claims that the measures in HEMS will “sustain up to 65 000 jobs by 2020 in fields ranging from construction work to science and technology.”
Universal standards for the rental sector
The HEMS recognises a "growing concern" that many tenants are not presented with Energy Performance Certificate information at the viewing stage.
It says it will "work with" landlord representative bodies in the social and private rental sectors to improve marketing and support to landlords.
Proposals are announced for a a new “Warm Homes” standard for social housing which will supplement the current Decent Homes standard. This will apply primarily to the social housing and associated sectors.
The new Warm Homes standard will help raise the energy efficiency of social housing from "around SAP 59 to at least 70."
New regulations for private rental landlords
Consultations will take place to formulate regulations for the requirement of loft and cavity wall insulation, where feasible, as a condition of rental, “from a date in the future, at the earliest 2015”, it says.
In the meantime, a “concerted effort” by Government will be made to “ensure” landlords know about the help currently available.
It also proposes to develop ways for PAYS to work in the private rental sector.
The energy companies and Pay As You Save - funding
Energy company obligations
DECC hopes that the new obligations on energy companies, after CERT, will fund two thirds of the finance needed to install expensive "eco-refurb" measures, such as solid wall insulation, through a requirement on them to save a fixed amount of carbon. Penalties for failing to comply will be “strong”, attracting fines of up to 10% of global turnover.
The measures will be more prescriptive: target groups will be identified, including low income and vulnerable households, and energy companies must provide “much greater clarity about how much they spend, on what, and in which parts of the country, to help the Regulator oversee the process and better understand the costs.”
(This pretty much puts the energy companies and LAs in the driving seat, doesn’t it?)
“We will plan for there to be no additional impact on fuel bills,” it adds.
PAYS
The plan is to ensure that people can use a share of the money they save on bills, or the revenue from small scale renewables, to cover the cost of the eco-upgrade.
Enough has been said already here on Pay As You Save but the HEMS document does re-iterate the Government’s intention to ensure that the “energy performance of homes starts to be better reflected in its market value,” working alongside the RICS to this end.
Home Energy Advice
It “expects” tailored advice through Home Energy Advice packages will “often be subsidised” as part of the new energy company obligation.
More on the Home Energy Advice aspect of the HEMS dicument - in other words, part 2.
But that is basically the grand scheme of things proposed.
Tags: DECC, HEMS, Home-Energy-Advisor
