WSBF Research Inquiry Call for Evidence on Domestic Energy Efficiency

[ALEO Admin]

The Westminster Sustainable Business Forum (WSBF) have issued a call for evidence for a research inquiry into domestic energy efficiency.

Historically, UK governments have supported investment in home energy efficiency through a combination of taxpayer-funded schemes and regulatory requirements on energy companies. The Comprehensive Spending Review/Autumn Statement 2015 announces a continuation of the supplier obligation approach with the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) as the only energy efficiency policy remaining in place in its current form until March 2017, after which it will be reformed with no concrete details confirmed as yet.

With funding for the Green Deal having ended, there is a need to fill a policy vacuum. Making the successor policy to ECO efficient in terms of targeting low-income and fuel-poor groups and designing a new policy tool to target the able-to-pay market will be highly important.

WSBF are inviting all interested parties to submit their views on a set of 26 questions, and they welcome evidence from individuals and on behalf of organisations.

WBSF's deadline for submissions is Friday, 19 February 2016.
(N.B the deadline to submit your comments for ALEO's response is 12 February - please see below.)

For more information, see:
https://teddinet2.files.wordpress.com/2 ... ciency.pdf

[ALEO Admin]

The Association of Local Energy Officers will be responding to this call for evidence and we would like to hear your views.

If you have any comments you would like us to feed in to the ALEO response on any, or all, of these 26 questions, please email you comments to the ALEO National Secretariat by Friday, 12 February, at secretariat@aleo.org.uk. You can also leave your comments on this forum below.

The 26 questions are as follows:

1. How will future energy efficiency schemes need to be designed to target both fuel-poor/low-income households and able-to-pay households and different types of dwellings? How can we best account for the fact that a vast amount of buildings are mixed-use buildings, rendering the term ‘domestic’ problematic as a categorisation?

2. In your opinion, what are the most effective financial and non-financial drivers for energy efficiency demand?

3. What is the relation of ‘easy retrofits’ vs ‘deep retrofits’ left to be carried out in the UK? What implications does this have on the design of future policies?

4. How can the successor policy to ECO in 2017 be designed to deliver the volume of treatments it aims at while also achieving carbon reductions in line with the UK’s climate change commitments and tackling fuel poverty? Can all these objectives be reconciled in the first place – why/why not?

5. How could future energy efficiency levies be formulated for them to operate effectively? What can be learnt from past supplier obligation schemes, for example with respect to their competition element or their effectiveness in targeting the fuel poor? Could the ‘Warm Home Discount’ be utilised in tackling energy efficiency uptake in the fuel-poor target group?

6. How can retrofit energy efficiency improvements be funded following the Government’s decision to end financing for the Green Deal? In your opinion, what were the most problematic aspects of the Green Deal, is there a future for pay-as-you-save schemes and if not, what could replace them?

7. How can we do more to focus on domestic central heating system efficiencies as this is the largest consumer of energy in a typical UK household according to the Energy Savings Trust? Is there a case for a more comprehensive best practice approach to central heating system maintenance incorporating magnetic filtration within the Part L Building Regulations?

8. What role do practical retrofit solutions play in delivering household energy efficiencies and carbon emission reductions and how can such approaches be best funded by Government following the decision to end financing for the Green Deal?

9. With the Landlord's Energy Saving Allowance having ended in April 2015 and the end to Green Deal financing, are private rented sector regulations still sufficient and, if not, how could they be strengthened?

10. How can energy efficiency be encouraged in new build following the decision to scrap the Code for Sustainable Homes? What is the role of building regulations? Can policies like Minimum Energy Efficiency
Standards (MEES) help fill the gap for planners? Why/why not?

11. In your opinion, how effective was the policy around increasing the energy efficiency rating of UK properties and how predictable is such an approach in the long run? How could it be complemented to strengthen the long-termism of UK energy efficiency policies? Should new build efficiency be incorporated into affordable housing requirements?

12. Why have previous efforts to introduce consequential improvements failed, despite overall positive consultation outcomes? In your opinion, would this be an effective regulation?

13. Could linking stamp duty to energy efficiency performance drive up demand in the market as it requires homeowners to consider efficiency at the point of key purchasing decisions? Are there any alternative
mechanisms you can think of?

14. What are examples of good energy efficiency practice/policy in other countries? Could programmes by the German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) serve as models for energy efficiency funding in the UK, potentially with involvement of the Green Investment Bank?

15. How can future schemes be improved in order to counteract perverse outcomes, such as fraud, and ensure a high quality of delivery?

16. How could the risk for installers of carrying out poor-quality installations be increased? Is this something that can be tackled by the industry or is some form of Government intervention necessary/possible?

17. How will the skills system for construction workers need to be adapted to ensure that energy efficiency is deployed effectively?

18. How can product end users be trained in order to ensure that energy efficiency equipment is used to its full potential?

19. What are the key issues for local authorities and energy efficiency, and what the practical implications of greater local government involvement?

20. How much support will local authorities require and what percentage of overheads will they be able to provide themselves to ensure better efficiency?

21. Could a combination of a localism approach and an infrastructure approach help with the deployment of energy efficiency and the pitching of its benefits at a mass scale? How could this be designed?
WBSF research inquiry: domestic energy efficiency
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22. What is the role of local authorities for area-based energy efficiency programmes and an infrastructurefocused
approach and how will local government spending and structure need be reformed to enable this?

23. In your opinion, should energy efficiency programmes be executed via a dwelling-focused approach? What could such an approach look like, what would be its (dis-) advantages and what would be the alternative?

24. In your opinion, should energy companies work alongside local authorities to implement energy efficiency projects as part of a new ECO? Should energy companies provide funding to local authorities (directly or through a central pot)? How could this be implemented?

25. How can the prevalent lack of energy efficiency skills in the local authority area and the concomitant dominance of large developers be counteracted effectively?

26. What would minimum standards need to look like in order to help assuage risk concerns among local authorities? Should local authorities work in consortium to draw plans collectively?

[ALEO Admin]

Below is a copy of the call for evidence PDF, for anyone for whom the original link is blocked by their IT Department's security settings.

call-for-evidence-wsbf-inquiry-domestic-energy-efficiency.pdf

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