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I have finally had a chance to catch up with James May's Big Ideas programme about Power to the People and its rather good.

• Solar energy
• Wind energy
• Tidal energy
• Nuclear fusion
• Space elevators (!) negating the need for huge rockets
• Solar towers (in the Spanish countryside)
• Alternative fuel sources like solar furnaces to assist production

It actually covers a huge amount of ground in 60 minutes and makes very good watching- go and find out for yourself!

I had covered some of the content that appears in previous blog postings if you are interested in reading my views!

August 01, 2008 - Wave energy in action - the Moores Law analogy
July 26, 2008 - The latest green technology developments
July 21, 2008 - Largest onshore windfarm in Europe to be built

Labels: Renewable-Energy-for-the-layman-Solar-Wind-Tidal-Nuclear-fusion-solar-furnace

Yes I know this is a bit late since the race went past a few weeks ago now, but I just stumbled across a couple of photos and thought I would indulge myself in another cycling-related blog posting following my highly regarded and now infamous Pedalling to boil a kettle for a cuppa tea! article some 6 months ago which drew rave reviews only from the insects that seem to be attracted to my desk!

Anyway, energy efficiency and the bicycle are good friends you know. The bicycle is the most energy efficient way for humans to move about, and arguably before we had them, movement was slow and frequently the next village was the limit of many peoples adventures.

The Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign ran a trial last month, comparing bicycle, bus, car and train from Heaton Chapel to Manchester City Centre to find out which means of transport is cheapest, easiest, fastest and healthiest over an average commuting distance. In a nutshell what did the experiment show:

Fastest- bicycle
Cheapest- bicycle
Greenest- bicycle

Code for Sustainable Homes

Yes indeed, even bicycles creep into this document! You score well for providing space to store bicycles. I'll remember that when I start thinking about our new build over the next 6 months. Think I'll prefer a separate outbuilding for my bike collection though, and it would prove less irritating to the rest of the family I suspect!

Anyway, my tip for the day- buy a bike, and go pedalling!

Labels: Cycling-Tour-of-Britain Energy-Efficiency Code-For-Sustainable-Homes-Cycling

Amazing really, you wait for an adult conversation with a Government minister and are surprised when you actually get one. Its clear that Ed Miliband means business at the new DECC, that's the Department of Energy and Climate Change which was established in the latest reshuffle which also delivered us Margaret Beckett as Housing Minister of course.


To get the ball rolling, the government has actually increased its commitment to cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 rather than the previous figure of 60% that was being pushed about. Shipping and aviation are proving more tricky to measure and manage and will be examined in 5-yearly Carbon audits.


Mr Miliband told MPs the government accepted all the recommendations of the report from Lord Turner's Committee on Climate Change. Although the full report from the Committee on Climate Change won't be published until 1 December, you can see the published recommendations.


In order to meet this 80% reduction- 5 specific areas of recommendation are made- energy assessors will be very interested in the first one, and perhaps an interest in the fourth- I certainly am!

1. Energy efficiency improvement in buildings and industry (e.g. loft and cavity wall insulation, use of more efficient appliances, turning appliances off and using less air conditioning), which will be particularly important for reducing emissions in the period to 2020.

2. Decarbonisation of the power sector, starting now and continuing through the 2020s, based on replacing existing conventional fossil fuel fired plant with renewable technologies (e.g. wind, tidal), nuclear new build and CCS.

3. Transport sector decarbonisation, first through improving fuel efficiency of conventional engines and increased use of sustainable first generation biofuels, with progressive introduction of new technologies such as electric cars, plug in hybrids and hydrogen vehicles, and second generation biofuels.

4. Heat sector decarbonisation through increased use of biomass in boilers and CHP, air exchange and ground source heat pumps, and modern electric storage heating.

5. Decarbonisation of industry through the introduction of new technologies such as CCS in cement, iron and steel.

So simple then! Well yes actually, if politicians are put under pressure from the public and the lobby groups then the above is entirely possible. It is encouraging that even with financial meltdown now well underway, the EU have not allowed some countries to waive the short-term commitment to carbon reduction. Of course there are headaches ahead like dealing with China and the USA but every flood starts with a trickle.

Solar heating in 7.5 million UK homes.

The Department for Energy & Climate Change now have a Director of Heat, Hergen Haye, who announced at this weeks Solar Trade Association’s seminar that the Government would like to see seven and half million homes with solar heating in place within the next 12 years. With a current stock of just 100,000 houses with installed systems that's a new installation rate of around 12,000 systems every single week, its a third of all UK houses fitted with solar heating. As we know new build starts have dropped dramatically in this credit crunch but even at full speed, 200,000 new dwelling per year may just be possible, and if the Code for Sustainable Homes can be beefed up and mandatory introduction dates brought forward in each region, then perhaps a contribution to the overall 7 million target can be made.

A positive comment made by Mr Haye was that 160,000 new jobs will be created with a 100billion or more investment opportunities- clearly someone is going to make money saving the Earth. Its certainly an exciting target for all those in the solar energy business!

This Autumn the Government will publish a consultation on the wider heat policy which will lead to a definitive Heat Strategy in 2009. One note of caution- making different elements of heat policy compatible with other Government objectives - such as security of supply, competitiveness, fuel poverty - will present a significant challenge.

Labels: government-has-committed-the-UK-to-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions-by-80%-by-2050

Spotted this little gem of a readers letter in the Shropshire Star entitled Light bulb moment for home energy bid.

Sadly this is all too common, the general public think they know about property, and have built their encyclopedic knowledge by sitting in a pub or watching Kirstie and Phil on television. In what is a very short letter, two classics appear:

It is a known fact that windows and doors are the most vulnerable area for heat loss in any property, so much so that the industry has put a lot of time, money and research in to this problem.

Er, perhaps the gentlemans pub didn't have a roof then? Maybe he lives in a skip?

If so, forget costly replacement of those draughty old windows and just change the light bulbs. This will reflect so much better on the certificate.

I would kindly advise the gentleman to spend a few moments reading about payback periods. Not a mention of loft of wall insulation, just an overwhelming interest in his windows. Yes, shiny new windows may add value to your property but there are so many other ways to improve the energy efficiency of the property!

Labels: Shropshire-Star-letter-gets-it-all-wrong-about-energy Most-vulnerable-areas-for-heat-loss cost-energy-efficiency-double-glazing

How do they manage it? Like the voyage of the Titanic, which was ultimately doomed to fail, the Institute of Domestic Energy Assessors have managed to ruffle yet more feathers in the HIP/EPC community. In its 15 month existance has any other company managed to cause such a stir? Yes its boring, and yes its like a car crash- you know you should not rubber-neck at it as you go past, but sometimes you just cannot help yourself!

Like the Delboy and Rodney of the DEA world, the IDEA 'management team' flounder helplessly round this industry in their batman and robin outfits trying to find more ways to make money.

IDEA have only recently recovered from the calamitous slip-up when the CEO/Chairman/Lobbyist (he cannot make his mind up which self-appointed title he wakes up with some days!) was published in the national press as stating that EPCs could be sourced for 30 pounds, or even less for high volume.


IDEA to become a circus Act?

Albeit I don't think Barnum and Bailey give circus lessons anymore, this Telegraph article let down all those IDEA members that have had such a tough financial time since entering this industry and regard such low fee levels as disgusting. Read the full article in the Telegraph Property Club.

I have covered many of the problems in previous postings so do not propose to rake over old ground, you can see my views here:

April 23rd 2008 Steering Group in mass exodus from IDEA, is IDEA in trouble?
May 11th 2008 17 more ways IDEA earn money- what about 17 positive things for members?
July 23rd 2008 EPC fees are at 30 pounds and we have 12,000 DEAs apparently!
August 3rd 2008 IDEA issues gagging orders to Committee candidates

It was not that long ago when IDEA announced a tie up with ECMK for accreditation. IDEA are supposed to be an Institute, they certainly do not behave like one. By agreeing deals that provide income into the IDEA coffers in the way of referral fees every time an EPC is lodged through ECMK all that has been achieved is to put the nose out of joint of other accreditation schemes. The deal with ECMK was not assessed in terms of what was good for members, there is no paper trail of the process by which each accreditation scheme was assessed and certainly no vote was taken by those delegated with responsibility for such matters!


IDEA split from the Pack Provider partner Hip2Go

Yes, last week IDEA announced they would now set-up a panel of pack providers which put their 'exclusive' relationship with Hip2Go into jeopardy. Hip2Go did indeed walk away at the start of this week, but in scenes reminiscent of when ECMK emailed all the HES candidates trying to poach them as they got moved to complete their training with Quidos, Hip2Go have only gone and done the same thing! Their Operations Manager emailed those DEA/HIs who have been using the Hip2Go solution telling them that they can indeed keep working together- even keeping the same login details- and with the extra carrot of further fee reductions. It was claimed to be an amicable split! Given I know the strong characters involved, I would wager that behind closed doors, amicable would not be the description being used!

Its become a volume game and a war of attrition- no-one likes to lose a relationship or volume of work. Perhaps the writing was on the wall when IDEA told Hip2Go they were unhappy with the speed of the searches being carried out earlier this year? Certainly doesn't help the Hip2Go ambition for continual expansion with products like the recently launched Landlords pack. Still, given the chaotic behaviour of Batman and Robin, I think its obvious who has come out second best, after all, look who is using the IDEA HIP web address at HipIDEA.net (which currently shows the Hip4DEA branding, username and password), yep, its only Hip2Go! Now if only IDEA had tried to retain and attract the right sort of people to guide it past these fundamental errors it might not be sending traffic to the 'opposition' eh? Maybe Batman and Robin should head back to the Batcave and get their heads round IDEA 2.0? Hip2Go aren't silly though, in fact they acted as the legal sounding board when Batman and Robin were busy kicking people off the Steering Group and suspending members willy-nilly leaving themselves wide open morally and legally.


So what next for IDEA?

(Other than global domination of course, that's a shoe-in!) OK, well they now wish to set-up a panel of pack providers, no doubt all competing for the work of the DEAs- so what we have is no more than a reverse-auction. Will IDEA publish figures about turnaround times on searches, how quick the DEA/HIs get paid when monies are owed? Does not seem very likely when IDEA continue to mislead people about how many members it has- the website is claiming 1961 members when nothing could be further from the truth. Membership fees were due many months ago now, and the take up is a small fraction of the 1961 number.


IDEA actually dislike me.

Yes, sadly its true. They spent a great deal of time last week clowning around trying to get me banned from speaking at the NHER/SAVA National Conference next week. Petty stuff really but with serious overtones of course. IDEA has always had this arrogant habit of trying to stop anyone saying anything that might not be on IDEA message including the suspension of people from IDEA without reason, secretive non-disclosure agreements completely inappropriate in what should be a democratic member-led Institute, the failure to provide basic documents such as a Constitution to folk who are considering joining IDEA and so on. Even steering group members got kicked out for being unhappy at the opaque or non-existant explanations/answers given. The word clown got mentioned many many times!


They really do need focus on what they need to be doing, which is learning how to operate as an Institute. I cannot see that day coming with the current Batman and Robin team in place, but miracles do happen apparently!

I'd like to discuss these problems with IDEA but sadly all the Batmen and all the Robins have been forced to sign a gagging order which means that none are legally allowed to comment for the next 3 years. Nice touch, there are dictators who would admire that masterstroke of control.

Labels: Institue-of-Domestic-Energy-Assessors-Out-of-the-IDEA-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire Split-Hip2Go

Yes, hark back if you will to the early days of the DEA/HI and the momentum we had towards the roll-out of HIPs.

Remember all those get-rich franchise schemes? Quite a few to choose from as I recall, but not many left right now are there?

Who sold regions, territories, areas with the promise of a nice stream of work if you paid up and bought-in to their, and hopefully for them, your, dream? Off the tip of the tongue I can think of Hipstar, Habitus and 1stForHips but then it seems rude to exclude panels that want DEA/HIs to pay for the privilege of joining them with no guarantee of work of course. So lets add Gas-Elec to the list then. And lastly what about all these websites popping up almost weekly now which encourage DEA/HIs to pay to have their names listed- and pay extra if you want top-billing etc.

Honestly, its just pathetic!

Hipstar- gone
Habitus- gone
Others- all over the place really!

Where to turn?

So if you are new to the industry and someone asks you to pay for something, and it looks even the slightest bit fishy, please do not part with your cash! Post the topic and your thoughts on the Home Inspector Forum and get the opinions from around the country of industry folk who have been around for a long time, and have come across almost all the rogue companies in one guise or another.

Fancy reading the sad story about one franchisee who has gone down to the tune of 14,000 pounds. Its not pretty but he was asking for legal advice here on the UK Business Forum.

Labels: The-great-franchise-rip-off Habitus-Hipstar-1stForHIPs

So how is it that the HIP and EPC roll-out have been such a shambles? Well there are of course many reasons, but certainly when their have been more baton changes than the Olympic Torch relay, then with a boss never in post for longer than the time it takes to settle in, the day-to-day role of delivering policy just becomes something left to civil servants and consultants to exploit for their own ends. This inevitably involves horse-trading for the civil servants who have inter-department rivalry to deal with, whereas at least the consultants are more obvious, they are in it for the money. Pure fee-earning for helping the civil servants to deliver the tasks they have been given.

A very brief history of HIPs

A proposal to address the problem of gazumping was first made in the 1997 Labour Party manifesto. Research after the election revealed that around 28% of sales fell before exchange of contracts, with gazumping occurring in fewer than 2% of sales. The emphasis subsequently moved to the benefits of increased speed, transparency and consumer friendliness.

Home Information Packs were announced in the Queen's Speech in November 2003.

Implementation of HIPs got delayed until finally a phased roll-out in the second half of 2007 went ahead.

and a brief history of Energy Performance Certificates



EPCs are inherently linked to the Directive on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD)2002/91/EC of 16 December 2002. The Directive came into force on 4th January 2003 and had to be implemented by the EU Member States at the latest on 4 January 2006. Only for 2 requirements (certifications and inspections), could member states, because of lack of qualified and/or accredited experts, have an additional period of three years (before January 2009) to apply fully. Clearly in this case, England and Wales chose to delay the roll-out of EPCs as they were considered to be an inherent part of the HIPs and it was HIPs themselves that were, and still are, politically difficult territory for the existing Government.

So the point to draw from the above is that we have had quite some years to prepare the country for HIPs and EPCs. Now lets take a look at who has been charged with delivering government policy on housing...

Housing Ministers since Labour got elected in May 1997

May 97 - Aug 99 Hilary Armstrong
Aug 99 - Jun 01 Nick Raynsford
Jun 01 - May 02 Lord Falconer
May 02 - Jun 03 Lord Rooker
Jun 03 - May 05 Keith Hill
May 05 - Jan 08 Yvette Cooper (with Ruth Kelly pretending to show ownership)
Jan 08 - Oct 08 Caroline Flint
Oct 08 - present Margaret Beckett

Well thats quite a line-up! No wonder HIPs and EPCs have gone badly, no-one ever got to grips with the delivery of the policy. Well thats not quite true, hats off to Michael Gove who, of all the shadow Housing Ministers, was the most effective at continuously being a thorn in the side of Government Ministers.

Labels: HIP-EPC-rollout-was-a-sham 1997-Labour-Party-manifesto Queen's-Speech-in-November-2003 Housing-Ministers-since-Labour-got-elected Directive-on-the-energy-performance-of-buildings EPBD 2002/91/EC

I found an article from Michael Willoughby demonstrating just how farcial the situation is regarding Display Energy Certificates quite hilarious.

In Waste of energy? The search for Display Energy Certificates it tells the story of Michaels recentwonderings around London in the desperate search of a Display Energy Certificate which of course should be on the wall of all public buildings by now.







So he visited Tate Modern and didn't find one!
Shakespeares Globe theatre? Nope, not there either!
The Underground? Nope!





So I think you get the hint, DECs so far are yet another failure in the rollout of the EPBD and this is yet another example of how we have had plenty of time to get it right. Even so, we have watered down the regulations, and still do not have enough assessors available to carry out the work!

A few examples of what some buildings are scoring:

10 Downing Street: D (657 tonnes of CO2/year )
HM Treasury: E (4,122 )
Natural History Museum: E (10,026)
City Hall, London: E (2,255)
Defra head office: E (1,322)
Palace of Westminster: G (11,983 )
Portcullis House: G (2,750)
Bank of England: G (9,373)
Imperial War Museum, London: G (3,664)
Imperial War Museum, North: G (1,396)



and if you are still not sure about the EPBD- well I stumbled across this handy little reminder!

Labels: Display-Energy-Certificates-have-you-seen-a-real-one-anywhere?

Ok, so I don't normally venture this far into creativity and culture on the blog, but I do read my Architects Journals when they arrive on my desk, I thoroughly enjoyed the amazing pictures and the article covering the development work at my alma mater Nottingham University.

So we have Accordia announced as the winner of the Stirling Prize, and a shock winner it was too, an outside with the bookies, unconventional as it was a series of residential buildings rather than one bold statement.

The judges said of Accordia: 'This is high-density housing at its very best, demonstrating that volume housebuilders can deliver high-quality architecture and that as a result they can improve their own bottom line.

'The whole scheme is about relationships: between architect and developer/contractor/client; between three very different firms of architects; and between private and public external spaces, providing a new model for outside-inside life with interior rooftop spaces, internal courtyards and large semi-public community gardens.'

So it can be done, yes it needs supportive local authorities, yes it needs risk-taking design and a fresh approach to tackle the stifled attitude to house-building we seem to suffer from, but its clear that modern high-density housing projects do not need to look like something from the other side of the Iron Curtain, that can be interesting, they can be bold, they can even be inviting!

So are you interesting in buying an ultra-modern and award winning home? Well they are not cheap, so I hope you sold your shares and sold off that second hand stuff on ebay some months ago because availability right now include 4 bedroom townhouses at 899,950 but for those on a more meagre budget there are still a couple of 1 bedroom apartments, both sporting a balcony of course, from 245,950. Incredibly 80-85% of the properties on the sales sheet are already under offer or have completed. Strikes me there is still the money in Cambridge there has always been, but with the rise of the Science and Technology Parks, and hence IPOs and outside investment, there is also plenty of new money in Cambridge too- and best of luck to it!


Best of the rest?
Certainly it was up against stiff competition. My favourite was actually the redevelopment of Bijlmer Station (pictured right) which has become the trigger for wider regeneration in that area of Amsterdam.

I shall keep my closely guarded interest in culture under wraps for another year- it is back to the daily grind of HIPs and EPCs for me!

Labels: RIBA Stirling Prize 2008 - Accordia is the shock winner

Can you even remember what Home Condition Reports are?

Now just imagine if RICS had been running the show, sorting out pricing, quality, auditing, standard of individuals allowed to do this sort of work and so on. No rogue training providers, no rogue accreditation schemes, no rogue/missing auditors, no excuses- well not many anyway. Oh and to finish off, a credible and determined press-savvy bunch of communicators taken seriously by the property industry.

Well astonishingly in Scotland, this is exactly what IS happening! Yep, the Scottish Single Survey is being introduced on 4 January 2009 and is mandatory for all new properties being marketed- which all sounds a little bit familiar.

Are they a real fee-earner? You bet, see the RICS Scotland press release where they explain that the survey itself will cost 500-700 which is approximately 100 above a normal level 2 survey, but they are of course carrying out the EPC for that 100 pounds!

Its remarkable stuff and frankly it makes me want to move north, if they'd have me.

In fact the single survey is only part of the Home Report, an alternative documents to the Home Information Pack and it will comprise three elements, with the first two carried out by a chartered surveyor who must by law be a member of RICS Scotland

1. A single survey showing the condition of the property and a valuation

2. An energy report showing how green the property is, providing an EPC (energy performance certificate) which will rate the property from A - very good, down to E. similar to the certificates found on white goods.

3. A property questionnaire, completed by the seller or the sellers agent detailing such things as council tax band, parking, disabled access, and whether the property has cable or satellite.

and looky here, its even got backing the Chair of the Scottish Consumer Council (SCC) who commented

The fee for a Home Report is a small price to pay for peace of mind when buyers are making the biggest purchase of their lives. At the moment most of us buy our home on the basis of very limited information, and many people end up paying out for unexpected repairs after they buy. Now they will have much more detailed information before they make an offer, and while sellers will pay for it, they will benefit as buyers. First-time buyers who are struggling to get onto the property ladder will benefit most of all, as they will pay nothing for their Home Report.

and it will come as no surprise to see the the Survey element looks rather like the Home Condition Report! Take a look, recognise those 1-3 ratings? Marvellous stuff indeed, pity the English and Welsh couldn't manage the proverbial buffet in the brewery really, God help the Olympic construction projects!

Well there you have it, another good opportunity to improve the homebuying process in England and Wales gone begging, so we can still look forward to 12 weeks exchanges, gazumping owing to survey findings which aren't declared until the moment of exchange and of course the best that CML, NAEA and the Law Society, and, to be fair, RICS, are saying is: lets go back the drawing board.

Not until you have put some credible ideas in the public domain people. I haven't seen a single conveyancer or solicitor reduce their prices owing to the availability of searches in HIPs, so lets at least have some of this debate in public, before finessing it in private.

Proper stakeholders, proper budgets, proper buy-in and commitment to change. Only then will we see action and progress. In the meantime it is no wonder the professional bodies hate Government-imposed regulation since its transparent its introduced in a haphazard and catastrophic way.

The wider point is, are industry going to grab this opportunity by the balls, or do we have to rely on future Governments to kick the housebuying process into shape? I know what I would prefer!

A final side-swipe at this shambles in England and Wales- know how hard it is to make sense of the CLG website? A search function that doesn't work- documents that move about, numbers that no-one updates and so on? Well do try the Scottish version of the Home Report website. Easy to navigate, easy downloads in one format. Not hard to do properly is it- unless you are CLG relying on half-wit consultants of course!!

Labels: Home-Condition-Reports Scottish-Single-Survey RICS-Scotland Improve-home-buying-process Home-Information-Packs