Tory MP fights to make display energy certificates mandatory
Zac Goldsmith wants energy efficiency rating displayed on all commercial buildings
Prominent environmentalist and conservative MP Zac Goldsmith is attempting to use the government’s Energy Bill to force landlords to rate the energy efficiency of their buildings.
The MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston has put in an amendment to the bill that will make it mandatory for all commercial buildings to have display energy certificates (DECs).
The UK Green Building Council and British Property Federation have been campaigning for the introduction of DECs, which are already mandatory on public buildings.
They believe they are necessary to understand how efficient commercial buildings are, and to create competition between landlords over energy use.
Yet the government has not included DECs in the bill, and Building revealed in May that the business department blocked the proposals because it feared there was little evidence that DECs would be effective, that they would cost too much and would add to the regulatory burden on businesses.
The bill is currently at Commons committee stage, which will meet for the first time today.
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Readers' comments (1)
Well they ain' going to cost very much, that is for sure. The whole system is designed by academics and rotten to the core and has allowed non construction people to flood the marketplace with little or no academic training or industry experience.
Why pay a reputable consultancy a reasonably modest fee when there are plenty of retrained taxi drivers and bus drivers happy to prepare DEC's for £6 or £7 an hour?
The bigger question and I ask the question as a qualified (non practising because I have a family who require food, clothing and shelter) CEA, is the current system fit for purpose?
There are many landords and assessors out there who have become very disillusioned with the system in its current form.
Will it change no, because they are to many training companies etc out thre who have a voice in CLG in who's interest it is for the current system to remain in it's current form.