GLPinxit Posted October 28, 2022 Share Posted October 28, 2022 https://ercouncil.org/2022/chart-of-the-week-54/ If throwing soup isn't the answer then what else will get the Government to focus? My view, based on having been on the inside of the policy-making prior to retiring recently, is that the difficulty in UK is that the main political parties are in the business of getting elected and don't think people will vote for policies that involve tax being raised to pay for things. (Hence green policies being canned shortly after introduction and potholes all over the roads making life hazardous for cycling.) If we had a proportional electoral system then minority parties could dictate terms for being included in the (inevitable) coalition government that would result. This would have mixed results; eg in Sweden where the very high alcohol duties are the condition demanded by the temperance party for supporting the coalition at the time. Better than global catastrophe, I think. And also likely to moderate policies to be less extreme, generally, to reach negotiated consensus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Jones Posted October 28, 2022 Share Posted October 28, 2022 10% year on year reduction in the entire civil service/council employees/ etc etc until they are gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDC Posted October 28, 2022 Share Posted October 28, 2022 My house is B rated, but that isn't how it performs. On paper it looks good, but the reality is, the fitting of the insulation etc is really poor. The builder didn't do what he said he'd done, and you can't blame the government for that. But it contributes to the little B line on that graph. I don't think you can rely on that graph as evidence of anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GLPinxit Posted October 28, 2022 Author Share Posted October 28, 2022 5 hours ago, MDC said: ... I don't think you can rely on that graph as evidence of anything. Having moved house in the last year I have little confidence in the EPC ratings. The assessor for the house I sold was all over the place and I've spent some of the 9 months in the new place finding and fixing a range of draughts- including some monstrous ones. Now, with a newly installed air-source heat pump I've probably made my EPC worse! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomas Posted October 28, 2022 Share Posted October 28, 2022 Assuming it goes ahead - very much not a given - https://www.unbiased.co.uk/life/homes-property/how-changing-epc-regulations-affect-landlords-and-tenants may help somewhat. It's not that likely to go ahead though, sadly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDC Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 13 hours ago, GLPinxit said: Having moved house in the last year I have little confidence in the EPC ratings. The assessor for the house I sold was all over the place and I've spent some of the 9 months in the new place finding and fixing a range of draughts- including some monstrous ones. Now, with a newly installed air-source heat pump I've probably made my EPC worse! I had a thermal survey of the house and I also spent considerable time and cash plugging the many holes in the insulation. The air tightness test on the EPC is 3.3, but in reality there's less air movement on Brighton Pier on a November night than in my house. How much effort does it take to fiddle air tightness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 11 hours ago, Nick Thomas said: Assuming it goes ahead - very much not a given - https://www.unbiased.co.uk/life/homes-property/how-changing-epc-regulations-affect-landlords-and-tenants may help somewhat. It's not that likely to go ahead though, sadly. Already the case in Scotland. At last, the property market might start to value properties with a poor EPC lower than those with a good EPC to reflect either the work they need upgrading, or the extra heating costs. At a very minimum anyone looking for a property to let will either be looking for a EPC C or above or if lower will only buy if it is cheap enough to pay for the upgrades needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 5 minutes ago, ProDave said: or above or if lower will only buy if it is cheap enough to pay for the upgrades needed. And then do nothing about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Jones Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 EPC are largely meaningless anyway, legoland new builds easily get 'B' and are thrown up. The system used in Belgium is much better in my opinion, the KW/h m2 are used instead. Was in Bruges earlier in the year and nosed around the agents windows as you do, some placed were 500 kwh /m2 some 20! https://www.vlaanderen.be/en/epc-for-a-dwelling You can directly translate this into a £££ value when looking to buy a place. Not easy to do with an EPC of B- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 8 minutes ago, Dave Jones said: EPC are largely meaningless anyway, legoland new builds easily get 'B' and are thrown up. The system used in Belgium is much better in my opinion, the KW/h m2 are used instead. the RDSAP used for existing properties make lots of assumptions and guesses and are pretty meaningless. But even my new build with a full as build SAP, with all the information on U values of walls, floors, roof, actual Uw window values, exact details of heating system, and actual air tightness test, the full SAP estimated the energy usage at 3 times what it actually uses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADLIan Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 SAP rating is based on energy costs under standardised conditions (and not all energy use in the home is included in it). It allows comparison to be made between house types. As an example take a 2 identical houses, one occupied by a family of 4 or 5 people and one occupied by a single person - they will have very different patterns of heating and hot water use so very different energy costs. Liken SAP to the mpg rating of a car - it allows a comparison between cars but different drivers are unlikely to hit the same mpg figures quoted by the manufacturer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceverge Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 If you taxed household fuel like petrol you could scrap the SAP thing instantly. People would get wise quickly if electricity was 70p/kWh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 (edited) 23 minutes ago, Iceverge said: People would get wise quickly if electricity was 70p/kWh. Too right. What not levelise all domestic energy to the same price. Then tax the suppliers though VAT and environmental taxation. Edited October 29, 2022 by SteamyTea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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