Energy efficiency is not a tax

The General Election campaign is off and running as the political party conference season comes to a close and the emotive subject of housing looks set to be a key battleground.
The Conservatives tried to grab the political high ground at their conference in Birmingham by announcing 100,000 new homes for young (under 40) first-time-buyers at a 20% price discount.
This came hot on the heels of Ed Miliband’s pledge to ensure the country would have all the homes it needs by 2025. A hugely ambitious aim and almost as ambitious as the ‘war on cold homes’ announced by the Labour Party that would make it illegal for landlords to rent poorly insulated and inefficiently heated properties.
The trouble is 2025 is a long way away – and the ‘cold war’ policy would only come into effect in 2027! Our politicians are very good at taking a long-term view if it means they can get away with a huge target that they will not have to account for themselves. They are less good at making long-term decisions on energy policy.
Zero carbon
The Prime Minister has also tailored his own headline grabber for readers of the Daily Mail by insisting that the 20% discount would be achieved by exempting house builders from certain property taxes and…the zero carbon homes standard.
The ‘greenest government ever’ really don’t get this low energy thing at all, do they? This is just the latest example of them dumping low carbon measures because they regard them as a tax burden on ‘business’ and ‘hard working families’.
Unlike the car industry where the manufacturers were challenged to develop new standards and met them, the house builder appears incapable of meeting this challenge and government accepts their arguments at face value. This is not an industry that is suffering. When did you last hear a housebuilder issue a profits warning?
Stimulate
The fact is that energy efficient buildings don’t just save energy – they are also built to better standards. Why not take the opportunity to stimulate the first time buyer market with high quality, low energy housing on a cost basis that can then be replicated right across our housing market? Then it would be up to the industry to deliver.
Finding an excuse to drop energy standards is all too easy for our government. Energy saving is not a tax – it is a benefit.