Existing buildings
In order to achieve the carbon reduction targets set by government, we have to tackle emissions from existing buildings. This is because the majority of buildings (particularly dwellings) which will exist in 2050 are already built and are contributing to climate change.
A number of mechanisms now exist to engage with businesses and other organisations in this area both in terms of regulation (such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme) and persuasion (Carbon Trust activity providing loans to organisations for carbon reduction incentives for instance).
Whilst there are some incentives for private home-owners to address their own carbon emissions and schemes to support those who might chose to do so (such as those administered by the Energy Saving Trust) there are few legislative or regulatory frameworks which might enable local authorities to make individuals act. The principal mechanism that exists is the consequential improvement element of the Part L of the Building Regulations. This captures some work undertaken on existing houses by requiring additional measures to be undertaken in order to ensure that some improvement is made to the dwelling when certain trigger conditions are met. A useful document summarising the requirements of this regulations can be found here
Some authorities have looked to develop additional policy requiring consequential improvements but you should consider whether there is significant additional benefit of such a policy over and above what is offered by Building Regulations before committing to this route. One possible benefit is that the policy could be written in such a way that work to existing housing which would not trigger consequential improvements under Part L would still require improvements under the policy.
Uttlesford District Council has a consequential improvement SPD in place, details of which can be found here;
This is the subject of an Energy Saving Trust case study which can be found here;
Another benefit of such a policy is that it addresses the energy hierarchy which states that energy efficiency measures (such as adding loft insulation or replacing old windows) should be undertaken before replacing boilers or installing renewable energy technology.
One way of addressing this issue is to present home-owners with as many opportunities as possible to reduce their emissions and the provision of community based energy schemes is one way which you might consider doing that.
Community energy schemes typically fall into two camps; heat and electricity.
Community Heat
The cost of installing the infrastructure for a community based heating system – generally referred to as a District Heating Network (DHN), is of course considerably cheaper when being installed in a new development as opposed to an existing neighbourhood. So, the question presents itself; how to fund the provision of a DHN in an area of existing housing? The answer to this question, at least in part, may be the use of a Carbon Buyout or Sustainable Energy Fund, particularly after 2016.
In 2016 all new homes will need to comply with the zero carbon homes standard. It is recognised that not all carbon emissions can be economically dealt with on-site and therefore ‘allowable solutions’ can be developed which see an investment in some form of off-site carbon reduction to deal with these residual emissions. One such measure is to provide cash to a Sustainable Energy Fund which could be used to inject funding for the provision of a DHN in the area.
Developers are likely to be encouraged to engage with this type of solution as a well constructed Fund should present a more cost effective method of complying with the zero carbon homes standard than dealing with the emissions in other ways.
For more details see SE 7. Develop policies to support SE infrastructure fund.
Community Electricity
Community electricity schemes can typically be funded in the same way as heat schemes but have an added factor in that they can be either grid connected or private wire. Schemes which are grid connected incur no additional costs in terms of getting the energy to individual dwellings as the infrastructure is already in place and once individuals have chosen to be a part of the scheme, changing to the community electricity scheme is as simple as any change of energy supplier.
Private wire schemes however, do have a capital cost in respect of the provision of both the central generating plant (typically CHP or wind) and the associated infrastructure (ie the cables and equipment necessary to transport the electricity to individual dwellings). This capital cost should be taken into account in the same way as heat infrastructure when considering policy development.
A further consideration which is currently rarely covered by policy and is omitted from consequential improvement works required by building regulations is the possibility of driving improvements to existing dwellings relating to climate change adaptation. This might be issues such as reducing water consumption, limiting impermeable ground coverings and so on. A report for policy makers was commissioned by the London Climate Change Partnership and can be found here
It’s important to think locally about any adaptation policy as the focus will vary according to the risks presented by the local context. You should ensure you have a robust evidence base in place which supports any requirement for retrofitting. Consequential improvement policy can be considered a regulatory mechanism for tackling climate change adaptation issues in existing dwellings but you may also want to consider a persuasion based approach. To this end you may like to consider using other methods of engagement such as Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM). CBSM has proved effective in other countries such as Australia where climate change adaptation is a major issue for national and local government.
Whilst this is not necessarily a policy area, CBSM has been demonstrated to be a more cost effective method of persuading individuals to engage in pro-environmental activities than the more typical approach of large scale advertising campaigns and so on.
Local authorities are encouraged to consider a programme of CBSM as a way of addressing emissions from existing housing stock as it can be used to target some of the behaviourally based emissions (such as use of electrical appliances, increasing recycling rates, reducing water consumption and so on) which community infrastructure schemes do less effectively.
CBSM is based on behavioural psychology, the principles of which can be applied to organisations as well as individuals and authorities are also encouraged to consider the development of a behavioural change programme as a corporate action.
Details of work on CBSM can be found here
