Commenting on the Pre-Budget Report today, the UK Green Building Council has highlighted the huge untapped potential in the refurbishment of homes and buildings to both tackle climate change and to boost the economy. Green buildings can cut CO2 and boost the economy.
Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, said:"The extra spending on energy efficiency and the proposed boiler scrappage scheme are welcome measures. They help raise the profile of home energy efficiency and provide some support to the emerging low carbon refurbishment industry.
"However, we're still just tinkering around the edges of what is possible. Householders need help refurbishing their whole home, not just their boiler. The government's pilot 'Pay As You Save' scheme is a step in the right direction, but it needs to go much further much faster if we're really going to kick start a revolution in low carbon refurbishment, and create thousands of jobs in the construction sector.
"Government's pledge to reduce public sector energy spending by 10% by 2013 is welcome, but there has been a collective failure up to now to reduce emissions from the whole of the non-residential building sector, which is responsible for 18 percent of the UK's carbon emissions. We need to see a combination of regulation and incentives to drive down emissions and the urgent rolling out of Display Energy Certificates that could give every building in the country a publicly accessible A to G rating.
"Homes and buildings still offer huge untapped potential, not only to meet our climate change goals, but to drive innovation and skills, create jobs and provide better places to live and work. This can all be done cost-effectively with very little, if any, government money."
Source: UK Green Building Council
