黑洞社区

The European Commission has started legal proceedings against the UK government for failing to deliver on a raft of green construction regulations mandated by Brussels, 黑洞社区 can reveal.

The dispute centres around the UK government鈥檚 failure to set out how it will comply with the Energy Performance of 黑洞社区s Directive (EPBD).

The directive鈥檚 requirements include rolling out Display Energy Certificates (DECs) to large privately-owned buildings that are visited by the public, such as shopping centres, as well introducing regulations to require people to upgrade the energy performance of their homes when carrying out other home improvements.

The EC has now written to the government to say it has started infraction proceedings, which could ultimately end up in the European Court, saying the UK government has failed to communicate how it would fully adopt the directive completely into UK law.

Under European law a failure to implement measures within the prescribed timescale set out in a directive can lead to a 鈧�9.6m minimum fine, plus ongoing fines of hundreds of thousands of euros per day.

The EPBD was passed by the European Union in September 2010 and the UK was required to have adopted and published legislation setting out how it would meet its requirements by 9 July this year, with the measures operational by 9 January 2013.

However, in September 2011 the government announced that it would no longer be rolling out DECs to the private sector - a policy it had previously supported.

In March this year, the prime minister鈥檚 office then appeared to torpedo plans brought forward to change Part L of the 黑洞社区 Regulations, called consequential improvements, that would require homeowners to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes, through the Green Deal, when carrying out other home improvements. The proposals had earlier
been dubbed a 鈥渃onservatory tax鈥� by some parts of the media.

The government has yet to publish its long-awaited response to the consultation on the changes and this week confirmed that they would be included within a wide-ranging review of 黑洞社区 Regulations undertaken by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), which is .

Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, said the government鈥檚 failure to implement measures it had signed up to was 鈥渁ppalling鈥�.

A DCLG spokesperson confirmed the department had received the EC鈥檚 letter. 鈥淲e are aiming to bring the necessary legislation into force to implement its provisions by the required date for this to come into force,鈥� he said.

The government has until 21 November to reply to the EC鈥檚 letter.