The IHBC has submitted its evidence in the All Parliamentary Part Group on Excellence in the Built Environment (APPGEBE) Inquiry into sustainable construction and the Green Deal.
IHBC Policy Committee Vice Chair John Preston said: ‘This is a critical area for the IHBC and our members, as well as for anyone dealing with traditional buildings, as we know how damaging ill-informed policy and practice can be to sustainable development.’
‘The Government’s ECO (Energy Company Obligation) scheme (launched on 1 January 2013) is putting over £700M per year into solid wall insulation and replacement windows for so-called ‘hard to treat’ solid wall buildings. The most environmentally damaging features of both ECO and the Green Deal programme arise from the best of intentions, but with a complete misunderstanding of how older buildings work, compounded by longstanding skills gaps in the construction industry trained to work primarily on new buildings. An urgent re-think is needed to avoid large sums of money being wasted on misconceived projects.’
In making its submission the IHBC encouraged the group ‘to examine the potential contribution to carbon use reduction to come from those aspects of the construction and development industries that are not new construction.’
The IHBC submission also highlighted that ‘too little attention has been paid to:
• The environmental capital of existing buildings and the energy costs of demolition and waste disposal.
• The consequent need for energy use in building to be measured on the basis of a building’s whole life-cycle – design, construction, use, removal.
• The need for comparative tools to facilitate refurbishment versus new-build assessment.
• The development of low energy improvements to buildings of traditional construction which take into account the nature of their construction and do not introduce techniques which are likely to reduce the viability of the building’s structure and thus increase its environmental impacts in the long-run.’
Download the submission here: LINK
For current consultations see: LINK
See and search consultation responses at: LINK
