Zero Carbon Hub reports on definition of zero carbon homes

Feedback to the Government’s consultation on zero carbon definition has now been published by the Zero Carbon Hub. Find out how over 500 people responded to the main proposals.  Zero Carbon Hub thanks all delegates who participated at our ‘Have your say’ events across the country in February and helped to make this feedback report possible.

In December 2008, Communities and Local Government (CLG), the Government department responsible for developing policy on zero carbon homes, launched its consultation on the definition of zero carbon homes. This was in response to uncertainties and concerns over previous definitions - the Government was advised that as many as 80% of new homes could not attain the currently used definition of zero carbon, Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. The new definition proposals have been drawn up to provide a more flexible approach, responsive to the range of site conditions across the country.

To help evaluate industry reaction to these new proposals, the Zero Carbon Hub ran a series of events across the Country. These ‘Have your say’ events, developed in collaboration with CLG, attracted over 500 delegates who were given an opportunity to provide feedback, using hand held voting equipment, on the key points of the consultation. One of the main purposes of the events was to reach out to a wider cross section of the industry - to people who might not normally respond to a government consultation. To do this the Zero Carbon Hub invested significantly in developing clear messages around the complex issues being addressed.

The key messages from the ‘Have your say’ events have been submitted as a formal contribution to the CLG’s Consultation. These have now been summarised in a published report, which sets out the findings in the context of the journey to zero carbon and their significance in steering future work at the Zero Carbon Hub. The report ‘Defining zero carbon homes – have your say’ is available as a download from www.zerocarbonhub.org.  For a hard copy please contact info@zerocarbonhub.org.

Allowable Solutions: Opportunities and Constraints

Allowable solutions have been proposed to provide flexibility in the delivery of zero carbon. Work commissioned by the zero carbon hub is evaluating their potential.

The Zero Carbon Hub is delighted to announce that work to evaluate the potential of a crucial subset of the allowable solutions has been awarded to BRE. This urgent work will inform government thinking on these important allowable solutions and how effective they may be in delivering zero carbon homes in the future. This work will help understand the practical opportunities and constraints that each of the allowable solutions offer.

Low carbon policies for homes – Conservatives publish Green Paper

Conservatives support the need for zero carbon new homes

Policy Green Paper No.10 Strong foundations: building homes and communities’ launched in April 2009 by Grant Shapps MP, Shadow Housing Minister, sets out the Conservative Party’s policy on housing. Section 7 of this Paper is concerned with energy efficiency and identifies seven key policy focus areas:

EPCs:  It sees a crucial role for Energy Performance Certificates, ‘liberating’ them from HIPs which would be scrapped.

Energy Efficient Retrofit of homes: Significant grants for owners to make approved energy efficient upgrades.

Low Carbon Zones: Following evaluation, the ten high technology/low carbon zones planned for London will be extended to a national initiative.

Business/Employee carbon cooperation plan schemes:  Exploring ways in which improvements in employees’ homes can be incentivised and count as part of such schemes.

Household energy use comparisons: encouraging change of behaviour by providing clear comparisons for owners of their use of energy compared with other similar properties.

Sustainable Homes Definition: Policy objective of establishing with all interested parties a universally-accepted definition of zero carbon for new homes.

The Planning and Energy Act (Merton Rule): allowing local councils to insist on renewable energy as a component of new developments.

The Green paper gives reassurance that, while some components of housing policy could be significantly reviewed if there was a change of Government, carbon emissions reduction will remain a priority.