You know the old Eurosceptic claim that Britain is the only country to comply with European legislation? Well next time you want to disprove that you need look no further than the Buildings Directive. The UK is down there with all the worst offenders. It’s shameful
MEPs have been pushing the Commission to allocate more staff to ensuring that the Buildings Directive does get implemented properly. Sorting out this mess isn’t just important for now, it is absolutely key for the future. Buildings are the source of 40% of CO2 emissions. Wrestling that figure down is key to getting climate change under control. The good news is that improving energy efficiency in buildings is the most cost-effective way of cutting CO2 emissions. What is more, it requires no new technology – we know how to do it – and it has the massive social benefit of cutting fuel poverty and excess winter deaths. Making buildings more energy efficient is a no-brainer.
And you know, this Buildings Directive which the Government has got itself into such a knot about is not a particularly radical piece of legislation. It’s a first step. In the European Parliament, environmentally-aware colleague from across the political spectrum are calling for a Buildings Directive Mark 2. If we are serious about cutting CO2 emissions we need to make the provisions which currently apply only to buildings over 1000m2 applicable to all buildings and we need to set a date for a PassivHaus standard, as we rightly call for in this motion in paragraph 3. So you can see how important it is that we get implementation sorted out because the Building Directive is a foundation stone, not the final brick.
One last point. You might be wondering why we need European legislation for this. Haven’t we got a whole heap of Lib Dem councils who are deeply committed to raising energy efficiency standards? Indeed we have. But we also have a Labour Government which has ruled that Building Regulations are not minimum standards but maximum standards. Government inspectors have ruled against councils attempting to impose energy efficiency standards more rigorous than the buildings regs and the Government Office for the East of England ruled that the current planning system “does not permit the setting of energy efficient standards”. What’s more, the Government blocked the Private Member’s Bill which would have sorted this out.
So we need to change things nationally, to allow councils to set higher energy efficiency standards and to get the Buildings Directive properly implemented. I would add that we also need to act at a European level and look now at the next steps in tightening standards on energy efficiency.
The proposals Read the Lib Dem proposals here.
Fiona Hall MEP
