Mark Brinkley: Is it possible to make old homes energy efficient?

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Housing contributes 25% towards our national carbon dioxide emissions. Or is it nearer 30%? I’m struggling to remember the exact figure. Whatever it is, it’s a lot, and every - one agrees that it needs addressing. But it turns out this is a lot easier said than done.

The basic problem lies with the fact that it’s much harder to make existing houses energy efficient than it is to build them that way in the first place. We have a stock of around 25 million houses in Britain, and most of these perform pretty dismally in regards to energy efficiency. Even though energy efficiency requirements first appeared in the 1970s (as part of Building Regulations), it’s only really in the past few years that they have begun to make a significant difference, and even now they are a long way short of what could be achieved. Energy efficiency is just not a topic that has been taken that seriously — whilst the politicians love making green-sounding pronounce - ments, their policies consistently fail to deliver anything remotely palatable.

A good example of this occurred when the energy efficiency requirements were updated in 2006. During the consultation process, a standard which would require homeowners undertaking improvements to spend extra money – up to 10% of the build costs – on energy efficiency measures was considered. So, if you planned to spend £50,000 on building an extension, you would be ordered by the council to pay an additional £5,000 – fitting a new boiler, installing insulation, etc – elsewhere in the home.

For a politician seeking to tackle the problem of carbon dioxide emissions, the attractions of this so-called consequential works clause were obvious. If, however, you were a politician seeking re-election in the not too distant future, introducing such a policy would be electoral suicide; the tabloid press would have a field day laying into yet another stealth tax. And so, unsurprisingly, when the 2006 Building Regulations were finally published, the consequential works standard only applied to buildings with a floor area of more than 1,000m2 — ten times larger than the average house. And, in the next round of changes to Building Regulations, which are already out for consultation, the 1,000m2 threshold is still in place. It seems that this particular standard is still politically ‘too hot to handle’.

Which brings us to the wider question. Just what are we going to do about the energy efficiency of our existing stock? How are we going to reduce the CO2 emissions from our homes by 80%, which is the target most of our climate scientists reckon we now need to aim for? If it is proving difficult to pass minor green measures such as the consequential works clause, then what hope is there for the really major changes needed over the coming decades?

All is not doom and gloom. If people won’t vote for sticks, they may be happy to have carrots instead. There is potential to tax on CO2 output, just as we do now with cars, and the Government now has the tool to do so with its much-maligned Energy Performance Certificates. There are also a number of tax incentives that the Government could introduce to encourage homeowners to carry out the necessary improvements. People undertaking energy improvements could be eligible for Council Tax rebates, Stamp Duty holidays and Inheritance Tax exemptions and, now that the Government indirectly controls much of the mortgage market, they could be offered soft loans for undertaking the work. More to the point, the tax penalties for failing to undertake energy performance improvements could be gradually increased.

None of this would be politically difficult – in the way that enforced consequential works has been – and yet, to date there has been almost no movement towards using tax incentives. Possibly the Treasury is shut down in bunker mode at the moment, trying to deal with the consequences of the credit crunch. However, this issue isn’t going to go away and it’s high time that housing started getting an enlightened green-tax regime. We may grumble about the way our cars are now taxed, but we put up with it. Why should houses be any different?

Further Reading:

• Mark Brinkley on the UK Self-Build Market
• Mark Brinkley on the Current state of Zero Carbon Homes
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