Chaired by former Tory environment secretary John Gummer MP, and vice-chaired by Tory parliamentary candidate Zac Goldsmith, a recent former editor of The Ecologist magazine, the group released their final report, Blueprint for a green economy, on 13 September, provoking some very strong criticisms from fellow Conservatives, mainly on economic grounds.
The report came out days before the Liberal Democrats at their annual conference in Brighton on 17 September endorsed what they claim to be the greenest environmental policy document** any major British political party. (See page 10).
Both reports are politically significant, putting pressure on Labour ministers to green-up government policies in the run-up to Labour’s conference, and in new bills due to be presented to Parliament before the end of the year.
The energy chapter in the Tory report makes recommendations across the energy sector, including on low carbon buildings, micro-generation and smart metering, sustainable cooling, and a kick-start initiative dubbed ‘low-carbon zones’, competitively chosen, overseen by local authorities, and seed-funded by central Government.
Launching the report, John Gummer said: “If we are to create a way of living that can sustain, then water, waste, transport and energy, as well as… the built environment, have to be thought of as a whole,” adding “The green revolution can do for Britain what the industrial revolution did a couple of hundred years ago.”
Conservative leader David Cameron said his party recognised the need for “incentives, not penalties,” to deliver the policies.
Carbon emission reductions in buildings
Existing measures to promote energy efficiency and the uptake of low-carbon technologies in the domestic and business sectors are: “insufficient and have not led to a reduction in emissions in recent years,” the report asserts.
The concentration on defined low-carbon zones “will sharply increase awareness and concentrate expertise in delivery,“ the reports suggests. And they would engage the enthusiasm of architects, engineers, construction companies, as well as planners. Increased volumes at the local level would reduce equipment and installation costs and enable the provision of low cost capital. LCZs would be the necessary and practical precursor of a national scheme, it concludes.
LCZs would cover energy rating, street lighting, local CHP and district heating, and as wide a range of energy use as possible. Within these LCZs, the first priority will be to establish the status of the existing building stock. Once the scheme is required universally, it can be assumed that one third of buildings in any LCZ will have an asset rating, which will be stored on a national register, the report recommends.
For rented or leased domestic property, asset performance would be under the control of the freeholder or landlord and not the tenant. Incentives based on council tax would not impact the freeholder or landlord, and so they may have to be incentivised to make improvements to the entire building when the first premise lessee chooses to sell the lease, it says
For domestic properties, there should be discounts on stamp duty land tax (SDLT) rates based on whether the building has achieved its ‘maximum asset rating.’
For non-domestic properties, SDLT should be applied in an absolute manner to asset ratings, it says.
Discounts to council tax and business rates should also be allowed for the introduction of approved micro heat technologies such as biomass boilers, micro-CHP and ground source heat pumps. This would not apply to microgeneration of electricity which should be supported by feed-in tariffs.
Smart Meters
The report argues there “should be no further vacillation” on installing smart meters, with a “commitment to their universal roll-out as soon as possible, “ and argues that a target of fitting 90% of homes within five years is achievable, and a legal requirement for all homes to be fitted within 10 years. Benefits would include, the report says, information necessary to support “micro-generation exports and feed-in tariffs.”
Local low carbon heating
Under Tory plans, to encourage the development of low carbon heating, local authorities would be mandated to develop a local energy strategy for heating. This should specify what type of energy distribution network is appropriate for a given district.
Planners would be given the power to insist upon district heating, local CHP, and other forms of decentralized energy, including microgeneration, in granting permission for developments.
Building standards
The Tory paper supports the introduction of the Code for Sustainable Homes, “but it is essential that it becomes a mandatory rather than a voluntary standard, and that higher levels of the Code are enforced in future,” it says. (see Built environment, page 9).
Emerging power generation technologies
When new products have moved to the development stages there is sometimes need to support them through early trials until they become ‘proven’ technologies, the report concedes, but argues: “This is best done through the private sector. ..to bring them to market.”
It adds that for more mature technologies considerable evidence from more mature markets suggests that that long-term market building programmes, “deliver consistent and significant price reductions over time.” Solar PV costs in Japan for example fell by 75% between 1994 and 2004, during which time there was a 35-fold increase in installed capacity.
The Tory report regards the 82,000 microgen units in operation as “extremely small, particularly when we note that those generating electricity account for less than 4,000 in total.”
UK Microgeneration Installations
Technology No. of installations
Micro-wind 650
Micro-hydro 90
Ground source heat pumps 546
Biomass boilers (pellets) 150
Solar water heating 78,470
Solar PV 1,301
Micro-CHP 990
Fuel Cells 5
Total 82,202
Source: Our Energy Challenge: Power from the People, Microgeneration Strategy, DTI, March 2006
Heat provision
For too long, heat has been the poor cousin of low-carbon technological advance, the report says. “This is of particular concern since heating is the dominant end use for energy outside of the transport sector and the vast majority of energy consumed in homes,” it notes. It calls for targets aimed at the efficient use of heat. “Within our LCZs, local authorities will be expected to develop a local energy strategy for heating.”
Pointing out that the Government has set a target that all new homes are zero carbon by 2016, the report proposes that new homes should be built to new passive building standards that require as little heating and cooling as possible. These would be enshrined in the new Building Standards and would prevent replication of the problems that we have with existing stock, it states.
To encourage the development of low carbon heat generation at the ‘micro’ end of the market, such as biomass heating and ground source heat pumps together with micro-CHP, a fundamental shift is required. “We have to move away from the present, bureaucratic framework of insufficient capital grants. We therefore propose reduced council tax and business rates for domestic and business consumers that use ‘micro’ heat technologies”, the report says.
Cooling
In line with the policy on new electric heating, new electric air conditioning and refrigeration should not be permitted in commercial buildings. The policies outlined to date and the incentives given to local authorities should see electric air conditioning and refrigeration being replaced by CHP, heat fired absorption and ‘trigeneration’, and natural ventilation systems such as passive stack ventilation, it says.
Trigeneration is particularly important as it would replace usage of high carbon grid electricity with more low carbon electricity from the ‘heat to cool’ process, the report stresses.
A further chapter in the report on the Built Environment expands on some of the energy proposals.
Built environment
The Conservative’s 447-page Quality of Life Policy group report contains a 35–page chapter on the built environment, covering old and new, housing, planning, land use and smart growth and financing the delivery of smart growth.
It says that the impact of the built environment – and of the use of spatial planning policy upon the sustainability and wellbeing of society in general, and local communities in particular – is “profound”. It notes that construction is a “major contributor” to resource consumption and that “energy use within buildings accounts for nearly 50% of carbon emissions.
Moreover, it argues, the built environment is “integral to community cohesion and individual health and wellbeing, designating the design of place and space as an “essential determining factor of local, regional, and national infrastructure, services and transport systems, not to mention wealth creation and employment, and property value and investment.”
Code for Sustainable Homes
Amongst the specific recommendations are that the Code for Sustainable Homes could be very valuable “as it addresses a much broader range of environmental outcomes and the assessment will be undertaken by individuals operating within a quality assurance framework.”
It points out that “it is essential that the Code becomes mandatory with a clear timetable for achieving higher levels, to allow industry to plan ahead, that it is properly monitored, and that the principles of the Code are extended to cover all non-residential buildings.” An annual review should also be undertaken by the National Audit Office to assess progress towards delivering the Code, the report says.
It argues that the approach adopted by the CSH should be extended by abolishing all the current Building Regulations Approved Documents and replacing them with National Building Standards, which would be “the necessary minimum outcome requirements.”
Outcome specific standards will be based on such criteria as carbon emissions not exceeding xkgCO2/m2/year, air tightness y m3/h/m2, and internal temperatures caused by summertime overheating 28°C for z hours/year (without air conditioning), it says.
The report calls for the abolition of HIPs, but does see some merit in energy performance certificates (EPCs), arguing that “when a building’s carbon footprint is being increased – as a result of major refurbishments, a household extension, conservatory, loft conversion etc – there should be a mandatory requirement to make cost-effective energy efficiency improvements to the existing structure” as identified in the EPC.
The report also recommends the creation of a UK Government Department of Sustainable Growth which would include in its mission “the task of taking forward work on defining robust measures of progress to use alongside GDP.”
The DSG would also have the role of assessing and advising upon wellbeing impacts of policy proposals, including development of an environmental wellbeing measure “perhaps using carbon footprint as a proxy,” it says.
Green mortgages
The report argues the merits of green mortgages, which would encourage
“consumers to buy, or to work towards, a high energy performing home.” A green mortgage, it asserts, “ may also offer incentives for other positive environmental features of a new or existing home – such as waste recycling or water efficiency improvements.”
Mixed reviews
Zac Goldsmith said in launching the report: “This is radical but practical, pioneering but realistic, and shows how the next Conservative government can deliver the change we need.”
Labour was mostly dismissive, claiming the proposals would split the Tories, and that David Cameron would be caught between rival factions, with John Redwood’s deregulation and competitiveness policy paper backing a pro-business agenda, the other favouring radical Government-backed environmental initiatives.
Full Conservative environment report, 447 pages, at:
http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=138484
*Energy chapter at:
http://www.qualityoflifechallenge.com/documents/Chapter7-Energy.pdf