At last!
It’s been over a year since the CLG launched its Green Homes Service (GHS) consultation on proposals to grant both the Energy Saving Trust (EST) and Carbon Trust (CT) access to the domestic and non-domestic EPC registers, respectively.
The consultation closed on 1st September 2008.
In case you forgot: the GHS - run by the Energy Savings Trust (EST) - aims to contact households with EPC ratings of G and F and point 'them towards the help available in their area.'
The consultation also sought views on allowing DEAs to search the register using address details and UPRN, to allow previous EPCs to be retrieved in cases where the UPRN is not known or lost.
Carbon Trust
First the bad news. In concluding, the CLG says it will side-step proposals to allow Carbon Trust access to the non-dom register in the ‘current package of legislation,’ until it finds time to ‘work up detailed proposals’.
Domestic Energy Assessors ‘will misuse’ register access for profit
Some respondents are concerned that DEAs ‘will misuse access [to the EPC register] by selling on data since they will have access to market information not available to others.’
This is not an unreasonable concern given the growing number of companies approaching DEAs with offers of financial kickbacks in return for leads.
But the CLG’s response to this is:
The Government will work with accreditation schemes to ensure such abuses do not happen. Any assessor found to have misused access will immediately be removed from the register and will no longer be able to work as an assessor.
Unless access to this data is actually performed through the accreditation schemes, how on earth will they detect misuse?
The EPC needs to be improved as a document
Some called for the EPC to be improved. In its response, the CLG says:
There is an ongoing process of change control and improvement to the content and format of EPCs overseen by two technical steering groups.
The role of energy assessors
More calls were made for the role of energy assessors to be expanded to include the provision of energy advice based on an EPC.
The CLG, in its comments, says:
The Government is working closely with energy assessors on the future development of their role.
I guess that must refer to the role of Home Energy Advisors recently being opened up to all and sundry then, instead of DEAs, as initially proposed.
You can view the full document below, but first… a roll-call of industry respondents:
- National Energy Services
- Northgate
- South Coast Home Inspectors
Two accred schemes, no representative organisations.
Added: Just discovered that on the same day the above consultation response document was published, the regulations was also amended to allow the EST access, hmm... The Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2009
