New Standards for New Houses

Homes for Scotland, the body which represents Scotland Private House builders, have been attacking the new building standards due to take effect in October. These standards will improve the energy efficiency of new build homes. Lobbying groups for private sector interests usually don’t like any regulation which ties their hands but much as I empathize with the plight of our building trade, and I have campaigned for measures to get the building industry moving again, the houses they build are for life – sometimes several lifetimes.

This is a nation with a “purgatorial “climate (according to RLS). Let’s not build houses which waste energy when the technology is there to build more energy efficient houses. The economy will pick up but we mustn’t saddle people with avoidably high heating bills for years to come when we can relatively, cheaply design it out from the outset.

Where I do have some sympathy for HoS is their call to tackle existing properties energy efficiency. The Council has an obligation to meting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard by 2015 but private houses do not. Most of the SHQS obligations relate to energy efficiency. Lib Dem Housing spokesperson at Holyrood Jamie Stone MSP has rightly called for an Eco Cash Back scheme giving home owners the cash to install energy efficiency or micro generational measures.