Clearview Midlands January 2014 - Issue 146 | Page 48

ENERGYEFFICIENCY

CALL TO KEEP CODE FOR
SUSTAINABLE HOMES SLAMMED
The Federation of Master Builders (FMB)
has slammed the House of Commons
Environmental Audit Committee’s report
into the Code for Sustainable Homes and
the Housing Standards Review as “onesided” and called on the Committee to
re-examine the evidence.
The Committee’s report calls on the
Department for Communities and Local
Government (DCLG) to reconsider plans
outlined in the recent Housing Standards
Review consultation to phase out the Code for
Sustainable Homes and questioned its plans to

rationalise technical standards through a set of
tiered national standards.
Brian Berry, FMB Chief Executive, said:
“For years, the building industry has had
to negotiate a proliferation of competing,
overlapping and sometimes contrary local
and national standards. These have added
unnecessary complexity and cost to the
house building industry, and have had a
disproportionate impact on smaller firms and
smaller developments.”
Berry concluded: “The Code for Sustainable
Homes may have served a useful purpose in

setting and driving standards for sustainable
building, but as the Standards Review
recognised, the Government’s policy on zero
carbon homes has now outstripped any need
for the Code. It must be recognised that
current energy efficiency standards required
under Part L of the Building Regulations, and
the proposed uplift in standards due to be
implemented in 2014, are already extremely
ambitious and highly challenging for the
industry. The idea that local authorities would
be looking to set higher standards still is
baffling, and frankly divorced from reality.”

ECO scheme must be retained
A report published by the
National Audit Office has
predicted that consumers will
face 20 years of price increases
in household utility bills to pay
for new infrastructure. This is
likely to hit those households
with low incomes the hardest.
Therefore, as the debate
continues around rising energy
prices and so called green
taxes the National Insulation
Association (NIA) is calling on
Government to retain a strong
Energy Company Obligation

(ECO) as it is vital to providing
long terms savings on energy bills
and the benefits far exceed the
associated costs.
The report adds that
Government departments should
consider the implications for
consumer bills and their overall
affordability before making
policy commitments. The cost
on domestic energy bills of the
Energy Company Obligation
(ECO), which provides free
and subsidised energy efficiency
measures, is £47 a year. However,

the NIA commented: “The
savings available to householders
through installing energy
efficiency measures can far
outweigh this cost.”
Neil Marshall, Chief Executive
of the NIA said: “The ECO is
the only Government policy
specifically designed to reduce
energy bills by improving the
energy efficiency of our housing
stock and therefore it is vital that
it is retained.”

‘Outweigh this cost’

BUILDERS COME TO THE FORE
In a move to strengthen the voice and input
of SME contractors in the national retrofit
programme, Brian Berry, chief executive of
the Federation of Master Builders (FMB),
has joined the board of The Centre of
Refurbishment Excellence (CoRE). The
FMB has also become a Key Partner in
CoRE, alongside the National Energy
Foundation and the BRE.
CoRE is the not for profit, national centre
of excellence for green building retrofit and
its primary aim is to facilitate the exchange of
knowledge between industry experts and those
who work on the frontline of building retrofit
or want to get into this area.

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JAN 2014

David Pierpoint, chief executive of CoRE
says: “Our board will be significantly
strengthened by Brian’s knowledge of what
is important to the many thousands of small
and medium sized building firms upon whom
the successful mass market refurbishment
of our homes and other buildings depends
so much. Many SMEs have felt somewhat
disenfranchised from the national retrofit
programme and initiatives like Green Deal
and ECO. Through the closer relationship
between CoRE and the FMB, we will be
working to unlock the broader market for
reputable contractors.”

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