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Pickles’ Part L changes face judicial review
l ACE challenges decision to remove ‘consequential improvements’ from Part L
The Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE) has called for a judicial review of the decision made by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to remove ‘consequential improvements’ from the new Part L of the Building Regulations. ACE director Andrew Warren responded furiously to the dropping of a measure that he said had widespread public and industry support, and the government’s own impact assessment suggested was worth some £11bn to the economy. ‘A judicial review is appropriate if a minister is known to have acted irrationally, disregarding the facts placed before them in a consultation, which they initiated. This is particularly so if they fail to explain why they have opted to reject the weight
of evidence before them,’ Warren stated. Consequential improvements would have required anyone extending their property to spend up to a further 10% of the cost on improving the overall energy efficiency of the original building. This was given added weight as the extra cost could have been raised by the property owner through the Green Deal. Pickles sanctioned a public consultation early
last year, which appeared to garner a good level of support for the measure. However, in December he announced that the idea had been scrapped. According to ACE, this was despite four out of five people who responded to the consultation specifically supporting the concept; and the government’s own figures showing that consequential improvements would have benefited the economy by more than £11bn. Warren says that two million fewer homes will take up the Green Deal as a result of Pickles’ decision.
Bluewater seeks to cut energy bill in half In brief
INDUSTRY HONOURS A number of leading industry figures were recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List. They include Buro Happold
chief executive Paul Westbury, who receives a CBE for services to the industry; and the building operations guru William Bordass, who receives an OBE for his unstinting work with the Usable Buildings Trust to root out poor performance and improve sustainability. OBEs are awarded to Wendy Blundell of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Northern Ireland; and David Bucknall of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Mervyn Richards receives an
OBE for his work in the area of Building Information Modelling and construction procurement.
UNITED STATES TO BE ENERGY INDEPENDENT BY 2030 The US will be able to provide 99% of its own energy needs by 2030 thanks to the emergence of shale gas, according to a report published by BP. The Energy Outlook 2030
report said the discoveries of new sources of shale gas would help to ‘reinvigorate the US economy’ over the next two decades. The US produced just 70% of its own energy in 2005. BP is also predicting a 36% increase in global energy use by 2030, along with greater exploitation of unconventional oil reserves, such as tar sands and biofuel. Developing economies will
Work has begun to cut the £1.4m annual energy bill at the giant retail park Bluewater by 50%, and to deliver lessons for this energy intensive sector.
The country’s 40 largest retail centres are thought to consume more than £40m of energy every year, and the Bluewater project is seen as a model for tackling this huge financial and carbon burden.
‘These sorts of figures are typical across the retail industry,’ said Mads Jensen, chief executive officer of Sefaira, whose software is being used to calculate and target energy usage at Bluewater.
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Sefaira will analyse the data from the building fabric, heating and cooling systems, and lighting, along with the daylight and building controls. ‘The process starts with pinpointing inefficiencies across the public areas of the centre’s 1.6m square feet of floor area,’ said Jensen.
‘Then over the next two months we will work closely with the Bluewater team to design a programme of upgrades and improvements to unlock maximum savings at minimum cost – before sequencing these enhancements
in the most capital efficient way possible.’
Lend Lease, which manages and part owns Bluewater, said the approach may be extended to other parts of its property portfolio. ‘We have worked very hard to manage energy use at our retail centres, achieving reductions of around 20%,’ said Pascal Mittermaier, Lend Lease’s head of sustainability for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
‘But we are reaching the limits of what traditional methods can achieve. If we want to make another major step, we need to rethink our overall approach.’
drive consumption with non- OECD countries using 61% more fuel by 2030, compared with just a 6% increase within the OECD.
B&ES CALLS FOR GREATER INTEGRATION Senior figures at the Building & Engineering Services Association (B&ES) have called for greater integration across the industry. Chief executive Blane Judd
told the association’s annual press lunch that history was littered with examples of industries and trade bodies that had ‘fallen by the wayside’ after failing to adapt and embrace change.
February 2013 CIBSE Journal 9
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