U.K. Government Issues Climate Change Consultation

February 12, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

The U.K. Communities and Local Government published a new consultation designed to boost efforts to tackle climate change and promote energy efficiency by proposing estate agents must include energy performance certificates (EPCs) with their property particulars for the first time.

The goal is to give consumers better access to information, which in turn would help them make new green choices by comparing energy costs between homes.

EPCs, energy ratings for homes, will give consumers information about the energy efficiency of properties, and practical steps to reduce carbon emissions and ways to save on energy bills.

To increase awareness of the benefits of undertaking environmental improvements, the government also proposed making the EPC the first document in the Home Information Pack (HIP) when launched on June 1.

The consultation also includes changes to speed up the home buying process based on the evidence of testing in area trials. It proposes changes to accelerate the delivery of local searches, which can take more than four weeks in some areas, and tackling the post code lottery of different levels of service and different charges for consumers.

Ministers also are in discussion with the financial services industry about providing green mortgages which fund the improvements suggested in EPCs, as well as exploring options to link EPCs to incentives to encourage energy efficiency, such as the council tax rebates some local authorities are offering in conjunction with energy suppliers.

The consultation also sets out the following steps:

• The government will be issuing new guidance to local authorities on providing prompt access to all search information, speeding up the process and setting charges that are fair to consumers, after area trials have shown that obtaining searches and leasehold documents can cause delays of four weeks or more in producing packs.
• While action on searches is being implemented, there will be transitional measures to ensure the smooth implementation of HIPs in June, based on evidence from the area trials. Sellers will be able, for an initial transitional period, to market their home as soon as an EPC and key legal documents are provided as long as searches and leasehold documents (where relevant) have been commissioned. These transitional arrangements will be reviewed after six months to see whether they are still needed.
• Where relevant, flood and ground stability searches will be required in packs as soon as systems are available to enable pack providers to find out quickly and cheaply whether a property is in an "at risk" area. This will give buyers key information without putting sellers to the expense of providing extra searches in areas in which these are not relevant.
• The fines for estate agents who fail to produce HIPs (including EPCs) will be reviewed in the light of experience from June 1 and could be raised from £200 to £500 if they fail to meet their commitments.

"Most people have no idea about things like the lagging in the loft when they buy a new home. But this will tell people how they can save money on their fuel bills and cut their carbon emissions at the same time," Housing Minister Yvette Cooper said.

The government also points to newly published independent research that confirms that the current home buying and selling process is slow, expensive and uncertain for consumers. It shows that the home buying process is fraught with information failures and a lack of transparency for both sellers and buyers.

The Mori HIPs baseline report found that buyers and sellers currently face transaction times which average more than six months from marketing to completion, making them among the slowest in Europe. One sale in four took eight and half months to complete and 23% of buyers who completed a sale had at least one failed transaction, according to the report.

The HIPs consultative document is available on the Communities and Local Government web site at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1505731.

Source: Communities and Local Government.