黑洞社区

Two thirds of UK homeowners would be unable to sell their homes without carrying out major upgrades to meet stringent energy efficiency ratings under new net zero proposals unveiled at the COP26 climate conference.

The work would need to be carried out by 2028, seven years earlier than a government target for energy efficiency in residential properties.

The proposals were announced by the UK Green 黑洞社区 Council (UKGBC) at the Glasgow climate summit last week.

They recommended that the government introduce a mandatory minimum energy performance rating (EPC) of C for all owner-occupied homes at the point of sale by 2028. 

Currently only around 30% of the UK鈥檚 28 million homes meet the rating, with the average rating for existing homes being D.

The cost of upgrading a home with an EPC rating of C to D is around 拢6,500, and nearly 拢10,000 to upgrade it from a rating of E, according to property firm Savills.

Despite publishing its strategy for decarbonising UK homes last month, the government has provided no details on financial support for owner-occupiers to make their homes more energy efficient.

UKGBC chief executive Julie Hirigoyen said the proposals are 鈥渘on-negotiable鈥� if the UK is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

They are one element of a major report by the UKGBC which aims to provide a pathway to removing all carbon from the construction industry. 

Called the Whole Life Carbon Roadmap, it also recommends bringing forward the government鈥檚 cut-off date for the sale of gas boilers from 2035 to 2030 and launching an immediate national retrofit programme for making homes more energy efficient.

It also proposes introducing mandatory assessments for the total carbon emissions of a building over its lifetime for large projects by 2023, and minimum embodied carbon standards for 鈥渕ore mature鈥� sectors 2025.

The requirement would be expanded to all sectors by 2027 and to building projects of all sizes by the end of the decade.

Other recommendations include removing VAT on energy efficiency retrofit works, introducing variable stamp duty linked to energy performance and mandatory disclosure of energy use for all non-domestic buildings.

The plan, which has been co-created with over 100 organisations, including government departments, sets out the actions which would need to be taken year-on-year to meet the government target of getting emissions down by 78% by 2035.

UKGBC director of business transformation Alastair Mant told 黑洞社区 that the construction industry needed to 鈥渇undamentally question鈥� its mindset if it wanted to get to net zero.

He said: 鈥淲e need to accept the fact that it means transformative change. It is not about business as usual and it is not about playing around the edges. We really need to set ourselves up to do things quite drastically differently.鈥�

He added that the launch of the roadmap was 鈥渏ust the start of the process鈥�, and that the UKGBC would spend the next few months 鈥渄riving awareness that this trajectory and set of actions exist, and then helping these other industry organisations both commercial, third sector and government, identify and play their role in bending down that emissions curve.鈥�

A UKGBC report found last year that introducing net zero practices on office projects could increase costs by as much as 6.2%, and 3.5% for residential projects.

Mant said: 鈥淲hen we talk about going to net zero, that鈥檚 a large step away from how the industry has been operating over the last few hundred years, decades and even the last few years. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 a significant change that we鈥檙e asking for, and I think we have to accept that it will come with some cost and some additional risk to projects, because it鈥檚 a change from the norm.鈥�

The government鈥檚 heat and building strategy included a 拢3.9bn package for decarbonising existing UK buildings over the next three years, with homeowners offered 拢5,000 grants to install heat pumps from April next year.