Dr Brenda Boardman hits out hard for action
Energy Performance Certificates were the main topic of discussion at a meeting of The All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas (APPGOPO) held on 11th November 2008, attended by various representatives from Housing Associations, and MPs, amongst others.
Dr Brenda Boardman (Oxford University, Environmental Change Institute), presented an in-depth analysis of the current residential housing stock and the challenge of lifting them into higher EPC rating bands (target of 81 - B rating) and alleviating her estimated figure of 5 million people living in fuel poverty.
Listen to her full presentation
Fortunately, the whole presentation (including Q&A) is available as a podcast at the APPGOPO website (Powerpoint slides also available from that page) and I would recommend all involved in the industry to listen for there is lots of very interesting information.
In her presentation she calls for all homes with a SAP rating of <35 to be grant-targeted.
She says there are around 3 million homes with a SAP <35. They are classed as a Category 1 Hazard for excess cold under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, qualifying for Local Authority help, but hardly anyone knows.
She calls for 'widespread provision of EPCs', deriding the home-selling route as simply too slow.
The official number of EPCs per rating band were released on the same day as the presentation as it happens, which show only 50,210 homes (out of 1,395,979 EPCs) having a B rating - some way to go!
DCLG is being 'anal'
"I think the DCLG have been completely anal about the Energy Performance Certificate. They will not put them on any publicly available website." adding, "I can find out what my neighbour has paid for the house next door, I cannot find out its energy efficiency performance, and there's no reason for that."
At which point, an audience member can be heard volunteering to take the complaint up with the DCLG.
Another audience member can be heard criticising an energy assessment they had undertaken (lack of loft inspection).
Brenda also has her theories on the low level of expertise in the industry!
Dr Brenda Boardman authored the acclaimed 'Home Truths' report, published earlier this year which, along with an earlier report, 'The 40% House', underpinned this presentation.
