Get tough with property owners who shirk energy-efficiency responsibility

Published on Wednesday 12 August 2009 21:12

While it is true that the energy efficiency of Scotland's homes will need to improve markedly if we are to combat climate change pollution (Opinion, 10 August) it is not the case that better insulation is always in the building owner's interest.

I live in a private rented flat with draughty windows, an old, clapped-out boiler and sky-high fuel bills and have been trying to persuade my landlord to install proper insulation and a modern boiler for years. He refuses on the basis of cost, despite the generous tax breaks available for landlords installing such energy-saving measures.

While there are doubtless some responsible landlords whose properties reach decent energy-saving standards, there are thousands more who couldn't care less, since they're not the ones paying the bills. The sooner the government introduces mandatory energy-efficiency measures, the quicker households such as mine will be lifted out of fuel poverty, and the bigger the contribution to the government's new climate change pollution targets.

IAN SLY

Warrender Park Terrace

Edinburgh

Chas Booth makes some interesting points in his polemic but I must disagree with his argument that compelling the owners of buildings to save energy is the best way forward.

Compulsion requires enforcement and inspection and, before you know where you are, a bureaucratic behemoth has been created with highly complex rules to cover various unorthodox constructions, with inevitable appeals procedures, exemptions, etc.

Mr Booth underpins his argument by contending that "the best way yet discovered to encourage home-owners to install loft and cavity insulation (is to] give it away for free" and he suggests that hasn't worked. It is true that the offer of free insulation doesn't work as an incentive, but free offers rarely do, unless there is a reward element to the offer. "Buy one get one free", or Bogof, is perhaps the best known example, but it depends on the consumer wanting the product in the first place, whereas energy conservation apathy is endemic across Scotland.

The Scottish Government used Arnold Schwarzenegger's name in its press release for the Royal Assent of Climate Change Scotland Bill and perhaps this is indicative of a desire for more muscle. However, the opportunity for rate relief for energy efficiency improvements has still to be tried, along with the option for a surcharge for those properties that could be made more energy-efficient. This could provide a better incentive than compulsion, whilst providing additional income from dissenting owners that could be used to address the apathy that is at the root of the problem.

HOWARD MARSHALL

Best Energy

Eglinton Street

Irvine

With 50 per cent of emissions coming from building use, I agree that property insulation is a key area in the fight against climate change.

However, instead of regulation, experience on the Isle of Man, France and elsewhere in Europe shows that far more can be achieved by giving homeowners and businesses meaningful and substantial incentives to make homes and offices more energy-efficient.

Reducing VAT on home improvements to 5 per cent would prompt thousands of homeowners to make improvements to their home in the next 12 months, boosting consumer spending significantly.

MICHAEL LEVACK

Chief executive, Scottish Building Federation

Crichton's Close, Edinburgh