At least 10% of new homes fail energy efficiency test

Published 14th Apr 2010

Official figures show a high number of new homes don't comply with legal standards to cut carbon emissions and utility bills

At least one in 10 new homes in Britain do not meet legal requirements for energy efficiency, condemning tens of thousands of householders to higher energy bills, and exacerbating climate change.

The government has identified improving households' energy efficiency as the best way to reduce carbon emissions at the same time as keeping a lid on rising utility bills.

Since April 2008, all new homes have had to meet tough standards on draught proofing, lighting and heating. All homes require an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) indicating how they rate. But at least 30,000 of the 300,000 homes built since then do not meet these legal standards, according to official figures just released.

Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, said: "Buying a home is the biggest single purchase people will make in their lives. With energy costs mounting – never mind the environmental issues – it's perfectly respectable to expect that buildings meet the minimum legal standards for energy efficiency."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) said she was not aware of any builders or companies being prosecuted for failure to comply with new standards. Local authorities are in charge of compliance.

A spokesman for the LABC, which represents local authority building control departments in England and Wales, claimed the new regulations were mired in confusion. The CLG spokeswoman confirmed that non-compliant new homes can still be sold and used. She said there was no central register of non-compliant homes and suggested that an explanation for the large number of homes that fail to meet new standards might be that new homes built as conversions of existing buildings, such as a barn, do not have to comply fully.

At the same time, builders are allowed to "block average" new developments that contain flats with different energy efficiency to average the minimum requirement. Homes which were granted planning permission before 2006 but were built after 2008 are exempt.

According to the junior housing minister Ian Austin, 743 new homes – or 0.24% – built since April 2008 are rated in the top EPC band. About 180,000 homes are rated in band B, and 89,000 are rated in band C. New homes built must be at least a band C, with higher requirements for housing association and council homes. The government figures do not divide private and public sector housing.

Experts are sceptical about the accuracy of these official figures. Energy efficiency assessments are carried out by local government inspectors, or increasingly, poorly regulated private sector assessors hired by developers. Local government inspectors said many private assessors do not want to apply the rules too strictly for fear of losing work. The government announced recently that in future new homes would have to be 25% more energy efficient than existing rules stipulate.

Source: ' Guardian '

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