Government walks away from zero carbon homes and the Green Deal

摘要

Two key government programmes to improve the energy performance of new and existing homes have been terminated; one in order to accelerate planning decisions for house building and the other due to the poor take-up of the scheme. First, the government has quietly abandoned key measures designed to facilitate a move to zero carbon new homes by 2016. A Treasury document, Fixing the foundations, published in July says that, in order to speed up planning decisions: 'The government does not intend to proceed with the zero carbon Allowable Solutions carbon offsetting scheme, or the proposed 2016 increase in on-site energy efficiency standards, but will keep energy efficiency standards under review, recognising that existing measures to increase energy efficiency of new buildings should be allowed time to become established.'