Objectives of the consultation
The Government first announced its intention to roll out Display Energy Certificates (DECs) in its response to the first annual progress report of the Committee on Climate Change. On 2 March 2010, DCLG published the consultation Making Better Use of Energy Performance Certificates and Data. In Section 6 of the consultation it announces the intention for a mandatory requirement for Display Energy Certificates for Commercial Buildings.
EPCs and DECs have an important role to play in supporting our carbon reduction aims by providing vital information about the energy efficiency of buildings in England and Wales and advice about measures to improve their energy performance. To enhance their contribution, DCLG consulted on a number of measures to help improve the effectiveness of EPCs and to make better use of energy performance data. In particular, the Government sought views on proposals for:
- making better use of the energy performance data by extending and managing access to EPC data held on the England and Wales domestic and non-domestic EPC registers;
- enabling local authorities (LAs) to use EPC data to support development of wider purposes such as support of local Carbon Frameworks as set out in the Household Energy Management Strategy (HEM) 2010;
- EPCs for houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) when rooms in such buildings are rented out
- EPCs for short-term holiday lets
- property adverts to show the EPC rating
- extending the use of DECs to commercial buildings
- making lodgement of ACRs on the England and Wales non-domestic EPC register mandatory
- clarifying when EPCs are required for sale or renting out of domestic and non-domestic properties.
This consultation closed on 25 May 2010.
Supporting papers
To download the consultation document, please follow the link below.
CIBSE response
CIBSE agrees with making the EPCs data more widely available as it can be put to good use by a variety of organisations. The levels of data protection are sufficient to be useful and at the same time protect against commercial gain by misuse. The only danger with the address level data access is when provided to an authorised organisation that has links to another company that might not be deemed appropriate for that level of access so there is a need to ensure that proper and effective Chinese walls are in place.
CIBSE believes that for DECs the whole register should be open access. Every DEC is a public display, and the DEC and Advisory Report are open under the Freedom of information Act. It is time that the DEC register was a public website, open to every taxpayer who has to fund poorly performing public buildings. In addition, a summary list of public buildings that have had DECs with summaries by geographical area where DECs have been implemented and just as relevant to highlight where public bodies have not complied would aid transparency, improving awareness and levels of enforcement.
CIBSE also believes that DECs should be extended to commercial buildings as a compulsory measure and that a one year renewal period for DECs is sensible and practical.
Results of the consultation and next steps
DCLG has published a summary of responses to this consultation in November 2010. To download the report, please follow the link below.