The chancellor’s 2008 Budget speech has been widely condemned as a ‘do very little budget’, particularly with regard to the environment and housing sectors. In essence Alistair Darling made a headline grabbing statement that legislation would be brought in to impose a charge on carrier bags if voluntary methods did not work, with the funds raised going to environmental charities. Secondly, he stated that the climate change committee had been asked to advise the Government on whether the 2050 emissions target should be raised to a reduction of 80 per cent on 1990 levels. Humm, not exactly decisive stuff is it?

Next the chancellor announced that in order to ensure carbon dioxide reduction is a central part of the government’s economic objectives, the first carbon budgets to 2022 would be announced alongside the Budget next year. Another case of jam tomorrow rather than today. Thereafter, Darling said that new non-domestic buildings would become zero-carbon from 2019. (New homes must be zero-carbon by 2016.) At the very last the chancellor offered some crumb of comfort in the fight to help climate change. He announced he would be releasing £26 million in funding next year for the Green Homes Service, which launches on 2nd April, to help people cut their carbon emissions and their fuel bills.

Regarding the Green Homes Service it appears the government may be doing what governments always do: throw large amounts of cash at a problem in the hope it will help. To be fair we, none of us, yet know how the money will be spent. In a recent article, published in Building Magazine (22 February 2008), environment secretary Hilary Benn MP said that the Green Homes Service is a first step and that advice alone won’t crack the problem of encouraging homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient.

Benn said: “I think that the difficulty is that only the hardy and committed will go out and source photovoltaic cells, wind turbines or whatever. We’ve got to make it easier for people. I think the next stage is to create a market in which folk will come and knock on your door and say ‘this is the work that can be done, we can organise it, we put the money upfront and this is the way you can pay it back over time.’ It could be through an energy bill, or through a mortgage if you have the work done when you move house.”

Benn’s suggestions appear to be more musings than a considered course of action, and we shall wait to see how the £26 million Darling has given to the Green Homes Service, from next year, will be spent. Richard Diment, the director-general of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) doesn’t think it will make much impact. He says, “The £26 million announced for the Green Homes Service is but a drop in the ocean. What is needed is a VAT cut which will benefit all households, not the selected few, to make their homes greener and energy efficient.

“A cut in VAT from 17.5 per cent to five per cent is the only real sustainable answer if the government is serious about cutting carbon emissions. What the budget speech demonstrates is a lack of clear political leadership to hit the problem head on. We need more than derisory incentives that won’t go far enough. The so-called ‘Green Budget’ will fail unless it tackles the problem of the existing building stock which contributes 47 per cent of the UK’s total carbon emissions.”

The FMB is leading a call for a cut in VAT to five per cent, which whatgreenhome.com supports. Its campaign entitled Cut the VAT has cross party support amongst a group of MPs, and is supported by a coalition of organisations including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Empty Homes Agency, the Bathroom Manufacturers Association and the National Home Improvement Council (NHIC), Heritage Link, National Energy Action (NEA) and the European Builders Confederation (EBC).

We at whatgreenhome.com have made inroads on our other two campaigning points (cutting or reducing VAT to a flat rate being the third). We met with our local MP Theresa Villiers (Con) to discuss feed-in tariffs, and a rebate in Council Tax for homeowners who introduce energy saving measures and/or energy generation initiatives that have a net impact in reducing their CO2 emissions. The scheme could be monitored through Energy Performance Certificates, as part of the HIP packs that are now a requirement for all homes for sale in the UK. Alternatively, the report issued following an audit by the Green Homes Service could be valid.

Regarding the issue of feed-in tariffs Ms Villiers assured us that should the Conservatives be elected at the next general election party leader David Cameron MP has stated that he would initiate feed-in tariffs. She did not elaborate as to how it might work in practice.

On the point of Council Tax rebates, Ms Villiers suggested that this is a matter for our local council, Barnet. She suggested we write to the council and said she would write to Mike Freer, leader of the council, regarding our suggestions and that he and we might meet to discuss our proposal. Duly, Ms Villiers has written to Mike Freer. And we have written to leader of the council, on 6 March 2008 (as of 12 March 2008 we have not received a reply).

Additionally, Ms Villiers has written to Caroline Flint MP, Minister for Housing & Planning at the CLG, raising the points of Council Tax rebates and feed-in tariffs. She has also written to Angela Eagle MP, exchange secretary, regarding the VAT issue. We have been cc’d on each of the three correspondence. So, some progress is being made on our campaigning points, however slowly, since we first asked of you, our readers, in December 2007 the question: Is the British Government doing enough to encourage energy saving measures in our homes? To which 92.1 per cent of you said: No!

Of the five people we had initially written to on 17 January 2008: the Prime Minister, RH Gordon Brown MP; Hazel Blears MP, Secretary of State for CLG; Eric Pickles MP, Shadow Secretary of State for CLG; David Cameron’s Office; and our local MP, Teresa Villiers, we have yet to receive correspondence from the CLG (directly or as a consequence of the PM’s office which wrote to us saying it would be passing our comments to them), Eric Pickle’s office or Mr Cameron’s office.