Labour Ministers responsible for Energy / Climate Change and Housing have declined to provide £18,000 funding to kickstart a project that could potentially lead to 500,000 homes with E-G EPC ratings being made more energy efficient and the creation of thousands of new 'green' jobs.

Conveyancing solicitors and estate agents could refer homeowners with EPCs to Energy Savings Trust (EST) for advice and / or insulation installers. However, they are not doing this. In an attempt to change this situation, I therefore arranged meetings between the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), EST and the National Insulation Association (NIA) with the Law Society which led to the latter agreeing to publish articles to encourage their conveyancing members to refer homeowners with EPCs to NIA member installers. 

Seperately, I also arranged for DECC and the NIA to meet with the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA). This led to the latter two agreeing to consult their members on referring homeowners with low EPC ratings to NIA installer members. 

As the next step, a calling programme was due to commence in april on NAEA and ARLA members to assess their interest in referring EPC owners. It was also intended that the calling programme assess the potential for estate agents and conveyancing solicitors to:  

• provide details of homes made more energy efficient to EST so the Home Energy Efficiency Database could be updated
• encourage potential homebuyers to buy zero carbon new homes. (circa 50% of new homes are marketed / sold by estate agents).
• improve compliance with commercial EPCs and promote action by commercial landlords.
• ensure the energy performance of a home is reflected in its market value. (market valuations are determined by estate agents not RICS surveyors).
• promote 'pay as you save energy' loans to homeowners as and when they are introduced.  

Lessons learnt from the calling programme would help shape best practice for future engagement drives with other organisations in the home selling, renting and supply chain such as banks, mortgage brokers, surveyors and building societies.    However, the calling programme is now 'on hold', an appeal to Ministers to reconsider their decision not to fund being unsuccessful. The reason given for declining was that if the calling programme  proves successful, it would present commercial opportunities from which estate agents and insulation companies will benefit.  

In this context, Labour has previously funded hundreds of energy efficiency related market research programmes and projects where consultancy firms, insulation companies and companies such as B & Q, British Gas and Sainsburys have gain commercially. However, in giving their decision through DECC, Ministers gave no reason as to why this project was being treated differently. No mention was also made of the fact that the project would benefit the work of Government funded organizations and potentially reduce the cost of their work to taxpayers.     The cooperation of estate agents and conveyancing solicitors clearly needs to be stimulated in order to achieve the real benefits that EPCs are capable of providing. Their representative bodies have in good faith offered to play their part to see if this can be achieved as have the NIA. It is therefore dissapointing that Labour chose not to play it's part given that Ministers and other Government representatives have repeatedly said since 2007 that action on EPCs is vital.  

The traditional home selling and buying season is underway and if £18,000 cannot be found after the election to enable the calling programme to go ahead, an opportunity to potentially improve the energy efficiency of 500,000 homes will be lost and four million existing EPC owners and millions of future owners will continue to wrongly believe that EPCs are an additional, unwanted, moving cost and a stealth tax by Government.  

If anyone has a better alternative to securing the help of estate agents and conveyancers on EPCs, please do let me know.