Zero Carbon Homes Plan Dropped
By Paul Homewood
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/construction-property/article4495019.ece
A plan to make all new homes “zero carbon” from next year has been abandoned by the government in a move which house builders say will save the average buyer £2,500. Builders will no longer be forced to install solar panels, heat pumps and other measures to reduce the need for new homes to use fossil fuels.
George Osborne, the chancellor, also cancelled plans to require builders to offset carbon dioxide emissions from new homes by paying for reductions elsewhere, such as insulation for existing homes or LED street lighting.
The Home Builders Federation welcomed the announcement, saying that the offsetting and renewable energy measures needed to meet the zero- carbon homes standard would have cost about £2,500 per home, which would have been passed on to buyers.
A spokesman for the federation said that the extra cost was effectively a “green tax” on new homes, which were already highly energy efficient under existing regulations.
He said that the cancellation of the standard would also increase the supply of new homes because the lower cost of construction would make marginal sites financially viable.
The UK Green Building Council, which campaigns for sustainable homes, said that Mr Osborne’s announcement would raise energy bills for new homes.
Julie Hirigoyen, the chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, said: “This announcement is the death knell for zero-carbon homes. It is short-sighted, unnecessary, retrograde and damaging to the house building industry which has invested heavily in delivering energy efficient homes. Britain needs more housing but there is no justification for building homes with a permanent legacy of high energy bills.”
Step by small step, but at least it is in the right direction. When will these eco loons realise that if we want solar panels on our house, we will pay to have them installed. We do not want to be forced to have them whether we want them or not.
This move follows the abolition of the climate levy exemption for renewables and other moves in the Budget to make green taxes slightly less burdensome.
But if the Chancellor really wants to make an impact, he could do worse than make substantial cuts to the Levy Control Framework, which I hear he is reviewing. This is the mechanism which limits how much extra we will pay on our electricity bills as a result of govt policy, and currently stands at £7.6 billion a year by 2020.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
I never thought the day would come when I would cheer a Tory government but this all makes sense to me and, by all accounts, just in time. Unfortunately, someone still needs to persuade the “let’s have the house heating high so we can walk about in a vest and underpants” brigade that this might not be a wise way of using our dwindling resources.
What dwindling resources? There is enough fossil fuel for the next century and beyond, and by then we will surely have discovered new cost effective energy sources to replace them. The only constraint is whether someone can afford to use the energy. If they want to run around in their underwear that’s up to them.
UKIP’s rational policies seem to have put the fear of God into Tory energy & green policies.
When something is plainly not working and costing a lot of money – only spectacularly dense folk will persist – as the fragrant Caroline Lucas regularly demonstrates.
Unfortunately there’s some left hand / right hand nonsense afoot and we’ve got Amber Rudd and the Energy and Climate Change Committee (now suffused with added eco-twittery) pulling in the opposite direction.
I was elated by the membership of the ECC Committee as they are clearly incapable of a single coherent idea between them. This ensures that any decision they make can be safely ignored as being demonstrably absurd. If you search you can find dozens of green initiatives on the public purse. Obviously the chancellor is in process of making a bonfire of them.Peak green has now passed and it is downhill all the way. Paris will probably provide the context to rein back very severely by whatever means are available. Expect existing (contractual) committments to renewables to be challenged under threat of charges of fraud. Lord knows there is evidence enough of deceit (aka Misselling). Having had compliant government for 18 years the renewables industry might be about to find out what it is liketo be personna non gratia.
Regular readers won’t be surprised to learn that I disagree with you lot! Here’s my take, in easy to digest video form:
NegaWatts, not MegaWatts!
I recently had my solar pv system extended to bring it up to the 4kw limit. While it was being installed, I had an interesting chat with the owners of the local firm doing the work. In their opinion, the standard of equipment retro-fitted to properties has gone up over the years but, by comparison, the equipment fitted by builders of new houses is the cheapest that they can get away with and consequently is likely to need replacing before long.