Louise Bateman writes in Green Building News about the problems small and medium-sized construction companies will face in the UK when new energy efficiency building standards come into force in 2014.
Warning for construction SMEs over new energy efficiency building standards
Small and medium-sized companies operating in the construction sector are being warned they could lose out because of new energy efficiency building standards that are due to come into force next year.
The Government confirmed this week its long-awaited changes to energy efficiency standards for new homes and non-domestic buildings under Part L of the 2010 Building Regulations. The revisions, which come into force on April 6 2014, are seen as critical to paving the way for all new homes to be zero carbon by 2016. They will mean new homes will have to be six per cent more efficient than they are now and non-domestic buildings nine per cent more efficient than current standards.
But the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) said the changes would affect smaller developers “harder and faster” than other parts of the industry.
“In a still fragile housing market, in which homebuyers are not prepared to pay the extra for energy efficiency, these extra costs will continue to come off the bottom line of builders, threatening the viability of many developments and further hindering hopes of a boost in housing supply. Smaller house-builders without large banks of prior planning consents will be hit first by these changes,” said Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB.
Fabric energy efficiency target
Details about the new energy efficiency standards, including a new fabric energy efficiency target, are expected to be published in August. Berry said as well as increased costs, the new fabric energy efficiency standard would involve “complex calculations and a steep learning curve.
“For those small house-builders who have not been building recently, the barriers to re-entry will be raised again,” he added.
Skills and knowledge
The CITB, the industrial training board for the construction industry, urged small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to get the knowledge and skills to implement the new regulations or risk missing out on a “huge amount of work”.
“Many firms in the construction industry may not have the right skills or up to date knowledge of materials for energy efficient housing,” said Tony Howard, head of new business at the CITB. “Contractors of all sizes must prepare by ensuring they have the knowledge and skills needed, in particular to improve fabric efficiency. Firms must ensure they understand what the new Part L regulations demand, and they must know how to meet them. Businesses which do not take active steps to upskill in low carbon building and which cannot demonstrate they can meet Part L risk missing out on a huge amount of work.”
The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC), which has been lobbying hard to get clarity on Part L, advised SMEs to keep informed about the full details.
“Our advice to SMEs would be to await publication of the detailed changes to Part L, which we expect DCLG to release next week, and then to contact the Zero Carbon Hub, which will be publishing updated guidance for industry,” Joanne Wheeler, senior policy advisor at UK-GBC, said.
Watered down targets
The Zero Carbon Hub, the industry group working with Government to develop low carbon building policy, welcomed this week’s announcement by the Government, but is one of a number of experts that are concerned about the 2016 zero carbon homes goal being hit. This is because the new energy efficiency standards have been watered down since they were consulted on more than a year ago – down from an eight per cent uplift for homes and 20 per cent improvement for non-domestic buildings. The changes, meanwhile, were expected to come into force in October 2013, not next April.
Paul Thompson, head of Policy at the Renewable Energy Association, reacted angrily to this week’s announcement by the Government: “This is a failure of ambition which seriously undermines the Government’s intention to fully implement Zero Carbon standards in 2016. As new build is excluded from the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (except self-build), industry was counting on strong carbon targets in the Building Regulations to incentivise new build green heating,” he said.
Simon McWhirter, director of Hab Housing, a small eco housing developer, said he appreciated the challenges for SMEs being raised by the FMB, but said his company was prepared for the new energy efficiency standards and said it was disappointing the Government had not shown more ambition. “We relish the challenge because it’s a direction for the construction industry where we are already ploughing our own furrow,” he told GreenWise.
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 
The last paragraph says it all. It has been clear for years that standards would be ratcheted up and that the smarter builders – be they large or small – could prepare themselves. For the FMB to enter special pleading now is a bit rich. They could have served their members better by ensuring that they made adequate plans.