Energy was never their thing

The ‘greenest government ever’ marked their final weeks in power by confirming what most of us realised more or less as soon as they came to power: They never really got this energy efficiency thing.

Although on the face of it the last five years saw significant progress on carbon reduction and this was acknowledged by the Committee on Climate Change; this had more to do with the recession and the reduction in the use of coal in power generation – rather than anything the coalition did to promote energy efficiency.

On energy ‘policy’, the administration twisted and turned; chopped and changed; and moved in whatever direction they thought the ‘business’ world wanted them to go. Their policies on renewables and the Green Deal revealed their complete lack of conviction on this issue. And, as a final flourish, they set out to abolish Display Energy Certificates (DECs) from public buildings - just three years after announcing they planned to extend their use into the private sector.

Crossfire
The Conservatives are instinctively anti-regulation and consider anything to do with setting minimum standards an imposition on business. Unfortunately, almost every energy or carbon abatement measure was caught in the political cross-fire because the Conservatives set out to reinforce their business credentials ahead of the General Election and to emphasise the apparent anti-business stance taken by the Labour opposition.

I can understand, to a degree, their fear of over-regulation, but the UK is heading very rapidly towards the other extreme and we have clearly entered a period where it is not about developing long-term strategy on energy, but scoring political points. We cannot expect the market alone to deliver minimum energy standards in buildings because clients will, in most cases, opt for the cheapest solution unless there is, at least, some measure of compulsion.

Having said that, a number of private property firms have introduced voluntary DECs because they can see the commercial value in measuring, monitoring and being upfront about their energy performance.  How ironic in light of the government’s latest move.

Even more ironic is the fact that remote metering is being imposed on the private building sector by the department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS). In a clear case of double standards, private users will be scrutinised in order to make it easier for energy suppliers to charge them – despite delays to the roll out programme and growing unease about smart meter technology; while DCLG sets about removing the one mechanism that has some chance of impelling the public sector to tackle its energy waste. 

U turn
You have to fear for the future of the regulations now in place designed to compel landlords to bring their properties up to EPC band E or F by April 2018. Is there a U-turn coming there as well? I guess we will see once we know the colour of the next administration.

DECs and EPCs - and BREEAM ratings for that matter - are far from perfect and suffer from poor enforcement. It is very rare for anyone to actually go back and check the building was performing as claimed, however, the principle is essential.

We cannot progress towards carbon and energy saving targets without proper measurement and monitoring of ‘actual’ energy consumption in buildings – this really is a first base issue.

It is also not an onerous burden on business. Quite the opposite; it adds value to buildings. A building that is cheaper to run is better designed and operated and, therefore, more comfortable to inhabit leading to more productive occupants. As has already been shown in Australia and other parts of the world, such buildings command better rents.

Blue chip property firms here have woken up to this fact, which is why they want higher energy ratings for their buildings - there is a clear business benefit. Why, therefore, did our ‘pro-business’ government not see it the same way? And can we hope that the next one will see this whole energy policy ‘thing’ differently?