ROOF Blog

Housing and Planning Minister John Healey has proposed a more consumer-friendly green rating for homes that will promote energy efficient properties and reduce future utility bills by up to £1500 a year in the most energy efficient homes. The Code for Sustainable Homes was ratified in April 2007 as a standard to measure improvement in the overall sustainability of new homes. Mr Healey is proposing changes in the Code to make it easier for consumers, whether they are developers or individuals simply wanting to grade and track the sustainability of their properties. Mr Healey said: ‘Our homes account for a quarter of UK carbon emissions, so it’s clear they are a vital part of our efforts to tackle climate change. The Code has proved its worth but now is the time to make it a more user-friendly standard for consumers. In the future, this will help drive uptake so people will save more money on bills and reduce the carbon footprint of new homes.’

People who generate electricity from home wind turbines and solar panels will not have to pay tax on the money they make by selling it to the national grid, the Chancellor announced in the pre-Budget report.

From April 2010, the £900 a year they typically make from electricity sales to the grid under so-called ‘feed-in tariffs’ will be tax-free. This will save a basic-rate taxpayer £180 a year and a higher-rate taxpayer £360 a year.

The government also announced that it would take steps to encourage poor households to generate their own electricity.

Although home generation equipment often pays for itself over its lifetime, the Treasury said, the initial costs can discourage low-income families from installing it.

Tax rebates for people who ‘go green’ by installing solar panels or wind turbines on their homes or swapping their company car for an electric vehicle will be announced by Alistair Darling tomorrow.

Although his pre-Budget report will include few giveaways as he promises to rein in a £180bn budget deficit this year, the Chancellor will give householders and drivers a financial incentive to play their part in saving the planet.

At present, people who sell electricity to the National Grid are taxed on the income. In future, it will be exempt from tax.

A householder on basic rate tax selling £900 of electricity to the grid from April would receive the full amount, instead of £720 as at present.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband is to announce new legislation to meet UK targets on energy emissions. The biggest investment is expected to be in renewable energy –  wind farms and nuclear power stations –  but energy companies will pass on the cost which is estimated to add £230 to household energy bills.

Meanwhile, Scotland would be 100 per cent renewable in the 20 years, according to a report The power of Scotland renewed. Renewable energy could meet between 60 and 143 per cent of Scotland’s annual electricity demand by 2030 by investing in grid upgrades, interconnections and electricity storage, the report says.

A recent decision by Rushcliffe borough council to refuse planning permission for a 1,200 home development on green belt land has been overturned by communities secretary John Denham. The local authority had thrown out the scheme on the grounds that it would have created traffic and resulted in a loss of green belt land, however, the secretary of state said there was an ‘urgent need’ for the release of land for housing in Rushcliffe.

The Conservatives have called for the eco-town programme to be scrapped saying that developers are running scared from the plans. Shadow housing minister Grant Schapps said the ‘small print’ of the draft legislation published last week reveal that plans for the eco-towns had now been pushed back to 2020, but John Healey said he would be making an announcement within the next two weeks on all potential eco-town sites.

A new report has suggested that the European Commission could be asked to help deliver eco-towns in England. The report recognises that eco-towns in Europe have benefited from strong local authorities, who are ‘deeply committed to the sustainable development agenda’ over a long period, and the current credit crunch will add to delivery and implementation problems. The report concludes that a work programme is needed for the next three years which seeks to improve UK capacity and bring together public and private stakeholders who can work across sectors and boundaries.

A Campaign to Protect Rural England study has accused developers of concreting over greenfield land, rather than build on brownfield sites, because the land is easier to build on and the houses can be sold for more. The CPRE wants tighter restrictions on the scale, location and timing of greenfield land release and more incentives for developers to build on brownfield land first.

The Confederation of Business Industry has said that delays in the planning system are discouraging major investment in renewable energy. It said little progress has been made in quickening up the planning process and that business was being prevented from investing in the new low-carbon technology. It wants the government to publish national policy statements to boost investor confidence.