{"id":4186,"date":"2012-05-11T17:36:59","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T17:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=4186"},"modified":"2012-05-11T17:36:59","modified_gmt":"2012-05-11T17:36:59","slug":"ihbc-sees-likely-car-crash-for-uk-buildings-as-decc-pushes-external-insulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=4186","title":{"rendered":"IHBC sees likely \u2018car-crash\u2019 for UK buildings as DECC pushes external insulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The IHBC, with partners, is highlighting yet another likely disaster for the UK\u2019s built heritage as attempts by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to reduce energy consumption in buildings will push potentially damaging external insulation in traditional and historic properties and places!<\/span><\/p>\n

Energy Company Obligations (ECOs), developed alongside the Green Deal by DECC to help improve energy consumption in our current building stock, require energy providers to spend \u00a31.3bn a year on improving insulation, or sacrifice 10% of profits.\u00a0 The pressure to spend is generating a \u2018quick-fix\u2019 promotion of external insulation despite the need for careful evaluation, management and implementation of this technology, especially in historic and traditional properties.<\/p>\n

The IHBC, with the Brick Development Association, the Federation of Master Builders, the National Trust and CPRE were among those organisations at a meeting on 1 May 2012 to explore the potential impact of the proposals.<\/p>\n

Following the meeting, initial concerns have been summarised as follows:<\/p>\n

\u2018Energy Company Obligations (ECOs) will see the major energy companies obligated to spend \u00a31.3bn per year between now and 2015 on improving the energy performance of existing homes.<\/p>\n

The Government has said that the vast majority of this fund should be used to provide external insulation for \u2018hard to treat\u2019 properties. This will result in many thousands of homes of all ages being over clad with insulation and then rendered, potentially damaging the performance and beauty of our housing stock whilst creating long term issues.<\/p>\n

This raises a number of key issues including:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Who will carry out this work?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Given we have little UK experience of this process how will they be trained?<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What inspection process will be put in place?<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How do we ensure the properties are properly ventilated to protect against health issues and condensation?<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How will the on-going maintenance costs of render finishes be factored in?<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What safeguards can we put in place to ensure that the brick and stone clad buildings are maintained after insulation has been applied?<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How will the homeowner be protected should issues occur?<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Improving our housing stock and reducing our energy consumption is vital but all agreed that we must ensure that any works are carried out properly and in a truly sustainable way that protects consumers and the assets of UK PLC.<\/p>\n

The key stakeholders agreed to brief their members and associates on the issues and work together to produce an urgent paper for Government setting out the concerns and recommending a series of solutions.<\/p>\n

The IHBC will be pursuing our concerns with our partners over the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n

For background see the May 2011 consultation document at<\/span>: LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

See November 2011 ECO consultation at<\/span>: LINK<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The IHBC, with partners, is highlighting yet another likely disaster for the UK\u2019s built heritage as attempts by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to reduce energy consumption in buildings will push potentially damaging external insulation in traditional … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4186"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4188,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions\/4188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}