Will Govt's £100bn Energy Announcement Bolster EPCs?

Compulsory measures expected in big eco-drive

Submitted by: MikeC (Admin) on 25-Jun-08 12:09:11 AM

No sooner had he cleared UK customs after returning from weekend talks with OPEC, during which, along with G8 world leaders, we collectively begged for more oil, was the energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, on Radio 4 hinting to listeners of the 'Today' programme of an imminent announcement that would mark the beginning of a "green revolution".

Home insulation enforcement

The Guardian has seen a copy of the plans which reveals that Govt. are considering measures to enforce homeowners to insulate homes and improve energy efficiency during renovation works.

Amongst a range of other potentially far-reaching measures - which include 7m homes fitted with solar panels - the announcement, due next week, is expected to unveil a £100bn package of policies over the next 12 years designed to kick-start efforts in meeting EU targets to source 15% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.

The proposals include:

• New powers to force people to improve the energy efficiency of their homes when they renovate them;
• A 30-fold increase in offshore wind power generation;
• New loans, grants and incentives for businesses and households;
• An area the size of Essex to be planted with trees and other crops to produce biomass energy;
• Forcing people to replace inefficient appliances such as oil-fired boilers

Revealed: UK's blueprint for a green revolution | Environment | The Guardian

Paving the way for Energy Performance Certificates, surely?

Now come on, if ever there was a chance to free the Energy Performance Certificate from the Home Information Pack - the lead-weight gripping the EPC - then this surely is it.

How else will homes be audited for need? Who else is ready to do it?

Are plans to upgrade RdSAP linked to this?

What about Scottish & Southern Energy's recruitment of 500 DEAs, announced early June? Do they know something? Does it mean the private sector may "mop-up" qualified DEAs to survey homes on their behalf, for grant-claiming purposes?

In other words, will private companies promote grants to homeowners whose home is then assessed for grants according to the results of an EPC?

Let's hope something is announced for the industry - It might not be the dream sold by the training companies but it would have to be better than today's situ.

As ever, though, the devil's in the details

Posts: 1

At last!
Reply #1 on : Fri June 27, 2008, 15:12:09

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You beat me to this one mike, but at last is seems like we're seeing some action from whitehall. Shame they didn't say we're funding the £100bn, but at least they are saying it has to happen.

admin
Posts: 1

Re: Compulsory measures expected in big eco-drive
Reply #2 on : Fri June 27, 2008, 16:01:16

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Simon, there are only about 5 references to Energy Performance Certificates in the whole document - None of them linked to policy.

There is a sniff that something might happen along the lines of tying-in with the energy companies (alluded to above). But I stress the words, 'sniff and 'might'.

I had a quick read last night and... I'm really not sure. We've clearly got little money in the pot to do much and this Govt. (and the one's since Thatcher days) have prostituted our natural resources to all and sundry, saving not a bean for this inevitable cul-de-sac.

Now, all Govt can do is play the "free-market" card, hoping and praying that commercial enterprise can do the job it cannot; only most of the commercial enterprises with the capacity to do it, are foreign-owned.

Gordon Brown even resorted to begging the Saudi's last week to come over and invest in UK renewables.