Wales wants to cut carbon emissions by 3% every year and housing is right at the forefront of the work to achieve this goal. Are MOTs for homes the answer? Sally Sudworth, Director Wales Low Zero Carbon Hub, reports.
The heat is on to cut carbon emissions in Wales. The recent report by the Climate Change Commission (1) (CCC) again reemphasised the need for everyone across Wales to make a concerted effort to manage their energy better and improve the way we go about managing and operating hospitals, schools, offices and homes.
The CCC made a specific call on the Welsh Government to lend more weight to the mission to reduce carbon emissions in Wales by 3% each year. It is a tough target and we need our captains of industry to provide the leadership, clarity and strong argument to convince everyone of the benefits of reducing carbon. As well as making the most of new technology and design innovations, we need a shift in culture. If attitudes and minds change, then carbon can be better managed and Wales can achieve its targets. But we need to persuade people of what’s in it for them.
Nowhere is this truer than in the housing sector. If we can change the way we manage heating and use of power in our homes and see the personal benefits, then we can make the changes necessary right across the country in our public buildings and commercial premises. Many organisations are switched on to making savings on their energy bills by making shrewd investment, but carbon management is still not high on most people’s agenda. Add to this to the lack of clarity on the Green Deal and confusion around the Feed in Tariffs, it is no wonder there is a lack of public trust in the climate change agenda.
The CCC report highlights the work in upgrading social housing energy efficiency and there are great opportunities to learn from feedback from projects such as Arbed Phase 1. The Government needs to throw more weight behind ambitious, large scale retrofit schemes.
However, we need to be realistic about the upgrade to our existing stock – we should upgrade where possible, but an over enthusiastic installation of measures can lead to damage, especially with major physical measures or the installation of excessive micro-renewables. We need a balanced view; some properties simply should not be saved. Other properties should be saved, but will never be ‘low energy’, and here we must look to local, district and nationally generated renewable power resources to ensure their energy demand is zero carbon. Guidelines are needed to assess whether a building should be redeveloped, refurbished or fed by renewable power. In this context, the Green Deal should be more carefully considered, and for those properties where it is appropriate, a guaranteed saving to the homeowner needs to be ensured for the best chance of uptake.
The Green Deal, which will be rolled out this autumn, has big implications for tenants, homeowners and the supply chain. It’s a mechanism for financing the installation of energy saving measures in the home, which would be paid for via future energy bills from potential savings. The CCC report calls on the Welsh Government to ensure that Wales is in a state of readiness for the Green Deal and the Wales Low Zero Carbon Hub is busy planning a series of events to support industry.
Another of our projects is a new product, the Green Mortgage. This is based on the idea that mortgage providers will calculate a mortgage offer based on a property’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating. By acknowledging the potential for lower fuel bills, lenders can provide a higher level of financing than normal on the basis that the borrower would have greater disposable income. The aim is to stimulate interest in EPC ratings for homes which are currently not on anyone’s radar.
Achieving a cultural shift is one thing, but providing the right means to deliver the 3% cut each year is another. Clearly, the idea of saving money and making your home greener and energy efficient into the bargain is attractive to some.
It has to be done right and appropriately. Welsh Government targets for sustainable construction make it imperative to establish a design standard that is cost optimal, energy efficient, and keeps household energy bills to a minimum. Private and public sector housing should have certain minimum standards, not be left to what a market that has little choice will be forced to accept. These standards should not, however, be focused on minor details that can be resolved with small scale retrofit; they should be aimed at the fundamental fabric of the envelope – delivering well sized, extremely low energy demand building envelopes unencumbered by internal structural barriers, that will form a long life ‘shell’ that can be adapted to the unforeseeable requirements of future generations. This flexibility could for example allow three generations to live in one property, or individual flats be formed when someone wants to ‘downsize’ without moving, or create home-offices, etc., in a comparable manner to the larger Victorian houses have proven to be adaptable and long-life.
At the heart of the design standards, therefore, must be minimum house sizes. Fundamentally, houses that are too small and inflexible, inhibit adaptation and alteration. Amongst other methods, we should use market forces to change the size of our houses, by pushing/requiring estate agents and vendors to market properties firstly on their size (square meterage/footage) and only secondarily on their number of rooms.
New houses must be built to the lowest possible energy demand; our housing stock stays in place for far too long for any other option to be acceptable (we have the oldest building stock in the western world). This must be combined with the stronger promotion of EPCs (or an enhanced version), so that the market is more aware of energy performance, potentially including house ‘log or service books’ at point of sale to show the last 12 months bills together with house maintenance undertaken. MOTs for homes could also be considered.
Current practices in new build and retrofit need to be considered as well. We are creating a database of certified sustainable materials in Wales (similar to that produced for Cornwall County Council). This will include a range of products produced by companies which are certified through auditable third party schemes such as the Green Dragon Environmental Standard. This will be launched on SCRIPT and will allow users to search suppliers by distance from a geographical location.
Welsh Government should be smarter about how it maximises value and benefits from land disposals. By remediating land and forming the infrastructure for development themselves, Welsh Government land could be disposed of on a plot-by-plot basis. If this was done in conjunction with accepting a deferred payment for the land price (say after 2 years), a market could be created that would allow an increase in individually commissioned houses by removing the financial and physical barriers. Bespoke housing, built for the end-user, is typically lower energy, better quality and better loved, all of which tends to lead to a lower energy impact and longer building life and therefore a more sustainable home.
For the first time in the nation’s history, both Building Regulations and planning control resides with Welsh Government. The construction industry fears that this power will create a disincentive to development; however the capacity exists to make this an incentive. Building Regulations and planning must be reviewed to established certainty and simplicity in the system; by reducing the risks in planning compared to the current system, development will be encouraged to invest responsibly and at the right stages. Through reducing the complexity, the challenges of delivering low energy, sustainable development can be the focus of attention rather than the development process itself.
For new housing, this drive for simplicity should be focused on delivering a low energy envelope of long-lasting materials; this means very good insulation and high levels of air tightness built with care and attention on site. The certainty should come from straightforward elemental U-Values and air tightness targets, measured ‘as built’, and delivered through decent construction practices. This sets clear, known requirements for the industry to respond to, not a complex variety of possible solutions.
For existing housing stock, the drive must be moderated by the realistic assessment of the capacity of the house types, but the overall goals remain the same. There will of course be exceptions, historic or significant houses must be dealt with carefully, and here the renewable energy supply becomes important. Furthermore, serious consideration should be given to the points when houses are let or sold, and what Building Regulations requirements for improvements might be appropriate at this points. Alongside this, mechanisms for removal of inappropriate housing stock must be developed; ones which will allow private homeowners to replace fundamentally flawed properties without suffering loss of investment.
Of course a bigger incentive to change things and to change them quickly is via legislation. The Wales Low Zero Carbon Hub is looking into the potential for making the display of Display Energy Certificates and EPCs mandatory for all buildings to stimulate (commercial) interest and financial drivers. This move will mean a radical change in how buildings of all shapes, sizes and function (not just housing) are procured, designed, built and then managed and maintained.
The Wales Low Zero Carbon Hub was at the centre of a discussion at the Climate Change Summit (2) in Cardiff on 14 March 2012, which was part of Climate Week (3).
To find out more about our work and how to reduce carbon emissions in Welsh housing, contact Sally Sudworth via the CEW office on 029 2049 3322 or email <a href=\"mailto:sally.sudworth@cewales.org.uk\"sally.sudworth@cewales.org.uk
(1) Climate Change Commission First Annual Report, January 2012 wales.gov.uk