Leading commercial property figures have sent an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, requesting that he honours the government’s commitment to improving energy efficiency. The move comes as MPs debate the Energy Bill, part of a comprehensive environmental legislation programme expected to be up and running by 2012.
Contained within the bill are provisions to improve energy efficiency in residential and commercial property, with the intention of securing low carbon energy sources and maintaining fair competition in the energy markets.
Signed by senior executives from companies including Lend Lease, British Land, Land Securities and Hammerson, it calls for the compulsory introduction of Display Energy Certificates. The A–G rating certification system, which ranks energy efficiency, is currently mandatory for public sector commercial property but optional for private. An estimated 17% of UK carbon emissions come from non-domestic buildings.
Without the ratings, say signatories, businesses have no way of knowing how much energy they are using and are unable to adapt accordingly.
Liz Peace, Chief Executive of the British Property Federation, points to the 5–30% of savings that can be made by reviewing how a commercial property is managed and maintained.
The letter goes on to say that the introduction of the certificates will create new opportunities in green technologies, while cutting energy bills and carbon use.
Carbon consumption is an area the government pledged to tackle in March, when it published the Carbon Plan, setting out actions to tackle domestic and international climate change by improving accountability and transparency in carbon emissions.
The ratings system is seen as complementary to the Green Deal, another government initiative designed to encourage consumers to make energy efficiency improvements to their residential or commercial property. These would be at no upfront cost to the consumer, who would pay back the cost through a series of instalments.
The bill received an unopposed second reading and now moves to committee stage. Voting is scheduled for June.
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