News article 2/11/2012

(Issued 2 November 2012) 
 

An innovative new solution to achieving Scottish Government targets on climate change and fuel poverty, which have been calculated at £4.6bn and £6.3bn respectively, has been unveiled by home building industry body Homes for Scotland (HFS).

With housing accounting for 27% of the UK’s carbon emissions but new and already highly energy efficient homes accounting annually for only 0.63% of the country’s total housing stock, the organisation’s “Retrofit Reward” scheme has been developed in recognition of the fact that priority must be given to upgrading older properties if any meaningful impact is to be made in the fight against climate change and fuel poverty.

The scheme is being put forward as an alternative to proposed 2013 changes to Building Standards which threaten to add up to £12,000 to the cost of building of new low carbon homes at a time when total housing production has already dropped to its lowest level since the Second World War and is based on research conducted by Dr Mohammed Imbabi from the University of Aberdeen - a world expert in the field of low energy building engineering.

It proposes that current 2010 Standards, the benefits of which are still yet to be fully recognized given current production levels, be retained for the foreseeable future with builders instead able to contribute to a carbon offsetting fund which would be used to retrofit existing homes.

As well as the significant cost implications, Dr Imbabi’s research found that payback from carbon emission reductions on the investment required to implement the proposed new Standards would take over 500 years, achieving CO2 savings of as little as 0.52 – 1.13 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year per home.

He concluded that:

  - Current standards are already ensuring the delivery of highly efficient, low carbon homes

- The cost of further reducing net energy demand and CO2 emissions from new homes has reached the point of diminishing returns

- Addressing the problem of existing inefficient housing stock offers a much more effective and cost-efficient route to meeting the Scottish Government targets

HFS Chief Executive Philip Hogg said:

“We fully support the Scottish Government’s ambitions to address the ongoing challenges of the green agenda but our industry is faced with competing and contradictory demands. It is being expected to increase housing production whilst building to higher standards which will lead to increased costs, higher prices and reduced affordability – all of which will ultimately result in lower output.

“We believe our scheme addresses this dichotomy by enabling home builders to have the option of either complying with new Standards or continuing building to current 2010 Standards and making a financial contribution to a retrofit fund which will be used to improve the energy efficiency of older properties.

“With some 160,000 people already on housing waiting lists, this would provide much greater benefit in terms of addressing carbon reduction and fuel poverty whilst allowing the industry to get on with delivering the warm, sustainable homes Scotland needs, safeguard jobs and allow more time for new technologies to be developed and tested.

“Of course, we expect to be robustly challenged but welcome debate among all stakeholders about how we can achieve maximum impact through a pragmatic approach which reflects both economic and technological reality.”