黑洞社区

In a letter seen by 黑洞社区, the communities department warned that the use of unaccredited people to gather data on a building鈥檚 performance 鈥渉ad the potential to severely dilute the quality of EPCs鈥�.

At present, assessors who are qualified to use the EPC software sign off data gathered by unqualified field workers, as the law does not explicitly forbid this. The communities department letter said that by the beginning of next month data collectors would have to be as qualified as the desk-bound staff who assessed the data and signed the certificates.

However, a subsequent email from the department pointed to the fact the original email was merely a 鈥減roposal鈥�.

By then, two energy assessor training bodies, Stroma and Elmhurst, had already sent letters to their members informing them of the change.

If I 'propose' a trip to London, you鈥檒l expect me to come

Stuart Oakes, Stroma

Stuart Oakes, a sales manager at Stroma, said the second email was prompted by complaints that firms did not have enough assessors to carry out site surveys. He said he had read the first letter as a directive. 鈥淚f I 鈥榩ropose鈥� a trip to London, you鈥檒l expect me to come,鈥� he said.

Rob Corbyn, Director of Low Carbon Energy Assessors (LCEA), said the seriousness of the data gathering issue meant the communities department should not have changed its mind.

CIBSE had previously told the communities department that its energy assessors 鈥渦nanimously鈥� supported a stricter approach.

The guidance also forbade issuing EPCs without an 鈥渋mmediate鈥� site visit afterwards to ensure they were accurate.