Fears grow that new Part L will lack key carbon clause

The government is planning to announce its long-delayed changes to Part L of the Building Regulations during the summer recess – a move that has aroused suspicions that they will be less stringent than had been foreseen.

As part of the proposed revisions, any householder intending to spend more than £8000 on a refurbishment project would be required

to invest up to 10% of the project’s value in improving the energy performance of their house, thereby reducing its carbon dioxide emissions.

It is thought this proposal has been the subject of a struggle within Whitehall. According to Whitehall sources, there was a meeting last week between Yvette Cooper, the housing minister, and Elliot Morley, the minister for the environment, to discuss it. Insiders say Morley is fighting to retain the 10% rule.

Peter Ainsworth, a Conservative member of parliament’s environmental audit committee, said: “If the government comes out with weaker regulations during the depths of recess, it would be easy to put two and two together and smell a rat.”

The debate over Part L has been lent additional urgency by the government’s need to comply with the European commission’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, due to start on 4 January next year. This is a response to the Kyoto treaty, and is seen as essential if the UK is to reduced its carbon emissions by the agreed amount.

Andrew Warren, director of the Association of the Conservation of Energy, said it was imperative that the 10% rule be included in the revised Part L.

He said: “If it is not, the government will have to save 450,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide elsewhere in the domestic sector.”

But even if changes to Part L are announced in time, the industry is still waiting for the government’s implementation plan for the rest of the articles that make up the energy directive.

David Strong, BRE’s managing director, said the changes to Part L were only half the story. He said: “In order to implement the directive on time we need information so we can start preparatory work on the actual energy certificates, how boilers and air-conditioning will be inspected and how assessments by independent experts will work.”