Ecotown loophole leaves door open for polluters

Juliette Jowit
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday July 15, 2008

Homes in "ecotowns" could generate more pollution than most existing properties because of a loophole in the plans announced by ministers.
As controversy over the plans for up to 10 new towns mounts, it has emerged that there is an escape clause in the building standards for the estimated 100,000 new flats and houses.
Caroline Flint, the housing minister, has said all ecohomes will have to meet at least "code level 3" of the building regulations, which reduces the maximum carbon emissions from new homes by about one quarter compared to the current standard.
However the level 3 rules allow developers who build homes with electric heating a higher cap on greenhouse gas emissions than if gas heating is used. The means money can be saved on the measures needed to reduce emissions, a loophole already being exploited according to experts.
Flint has also been attacked for not insisting on higher standards – which go up to level 6 – under which all home heating and electricity-use has to be "zero carbon".
"We have withdrawn our support for so-called ecotowns. The way they are being rolled out is firstly not going to help our carbon emissions, and secondly they are creating a sense of cynicism amongst the public who see the use of ecotowns as a greenwash tactic for the government's house building programme," said Greg Barker, the Conservative shadow environment minister.
"If they are really serious about cutting emissions and making a success of the code for sustainable homes they will close this loophole immediately."
Flint recently went on the defensive over ecotowns after weeks of growing rebellion, led by celebrities including actors Dame Judi Dench and John Nettles, and the parents of former tennis player Tim Henman. Flint published a poll showing public support for ecotowns outnumbers opposition by five to one, though fewer than half those polled were in favour.
Plans for five ecotowns by 2016 and up to five more by 2020 were announced in 2007 on top of existing government proposals to build at least 370,000 flats and houses to meet a forecast shortage of three million homes by 2020.
The code level 3 – which is currently mandatory for social housing but not private developments – sets annual carbon dioxide emission limits about 25% lower than current "Part L" standards.
For an average three-bedroom semi-detached house the limit for gas-heated homes is reduced from 2,203kg to 1,640kg a year, and for electrically heated homes from 3,118kg to 2,324kg a year. The difference – which allows electrically-heated homes 40% higher emissions than gas-heated ones – was intended to cover houses where a main gas supply was not available.
Government officials said the promise that the new towns would be zero carbon across the whole development would ensure builders did not take advantage of the higher emissions limit.
"Ecotowns will have to meet tougher green standards than those set out for building other new houses and any suggestions otherwise are wrong," said a spokesman for the department for communities and local government.
"They must meet zero-carbon status across the entire development, including shops, offices and schools – a more demanding standard than delivering zero-carbon houses alone." In addition, from 2016, when later ecotowns would be built, all new homes must be zero carbon, said the spokesman.
However industry experts said the lower cost of building electrically-heated homes, particularly using air-source heat-pumps, would encourage developers to do this, while there was no guarantee from government that they would not allow ecotowns to declare themselves zero carbon by building renewable energy schemes off-site, and possibly far away.
This would take up valuable sites, especially for wind farms, which could otherwise be used to reduce emissions from existing homes. It would also increase the amount of power generation which needs to be built because of losses in transmission over longer distances.
Home owners' heating costs would also rise in electrically-heated homes, and there would be less investment in micro-generation, said Adrian Hewitt, a director partner of sustainability and energy consultancy Metropolis Green. "There's a danger of an otherwise creditable government ambition being confounded because of loopholes," he said.
Consultant Richard Hodkinson said it was cheaper by "single figures thousands of pounds" for developers to meet code 3 standards by fitting air source heat-pumps, which run off electricity, rather than with gas boilers.
This is because of the additional insulation work needed to meet the lower emissions standard for gas-heated homes, which might also require fitting renewable energy such as solar hot water panels. As a result, heat pumps were becoming the "emerging solution", he said.