Lack of support for energy efficiency

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Consumers need more government-led support and incentives to make their homes energy-efficient, says Nigel Rees, chief executive and national secretary of the Glass and Glazing Federation.

What is the role of the GGF and how do you act on behalf of your members?

Our role is to provide the necessary support and direction to allow our members to do what they do best, such as manufacture glass, process glass and install glass and windows. We work closely with the British Standards Institute (BSI) to represent them at British, European and international standards meetings to ensure technical standardisation can be at the forefront of our guidance to our members. We liaise closely with the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG), the Scottish Building Standards Authority (SBSA) and the Department of Finance and Personnel in Northern Ireland, to ensure that proposed changes to building regulations achieve what the government requires in a manageable way for the industry. We supply support and guidance on such issues as training, health and safety, environmental issues and marketing and communications.

We also have a role to promote our members and their products to prospective clients, such as architects, specifiers and consumers.

The GGF campaigns on issues of energy efficiency. How much energy is wasted through inefficient windows?

Through 2008, we conducted a 12-month project to ascertain the environmental credentials of our members and the benefits of energy-efficient windows. We undertook this work because the uptake of domestic replacement windows had started to slow and we were only too aware of the figures generated by the Energy Savings Trust (EST) that 23 per cent of energy is lost from a domestic property through inefficient windows.

In a typical house, how much money could users save on their energy bills by converting from single-glazed windows to energy efficient glazing?

As an outcome of our Project Green Study, we have produced an energy savings calculator which has been approved by the EST. The calculator is situated on the GGF website (www.ggf.org.uk) and can be accessed by GGF member companies when they are selling windows to the consumer, or by consumers themselves to check out their own property.

The average yearly energy bill savings made from installing energy-efficient windows into a typical house would be £135 for a single-glazed property. This would rise to around £450 savings if the house was electrically heated.

Surely for us to achieve truly energy-efficient housing, we need to see a joined-up approach from all sectors, such as insulation, glazing, etc?

Yes, we totally agree with this stance and have been lobbying the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) strongly on this fact. We understand that the government’s proposed ‘green deal’ will only be available once to each property, therefore all aspects need to be considered at that time.

Energy will follow the course of least resistance, so if you leave one element with poor energy efficiency, then the energy will be lost through this source. It is of little value to fully insulate a property and continue to use an inefficient boiler; equally a new boiler with loft and cavity wall insulation will be wasted if inefficient windows are not replaced, as all the ‘saved energy’ will exit through the windows.

Our project and energy-saving calculator showed that if you replaced all the existing windows in the existing housing stock with energy-efficient versions, you would have average yearly savings of:

• £2.36bn
• 3.97 million tonnes of carbon
• 14.56 million tonnes of CO2.

In effect, the installation of energy-efficient windows into the current existing housing stock would save 10 per cent of emissions from dwellings nationally and reduce national energy expenditure by 10 per cent.

Did you see any rays of hope for your sector, such as investment support for the Green Investment Bank in the spending review?

We have lobbied for quite some time now over the lack of consumer support for energy-efficient improvements to homes and properties. Consideration needs to be given to some form of incentivisation for the consumer. We have long supported a move for a lower rate of VAT for the installation of energy-efficient windows to match certain other energy-efficient products that already benefit from a five per cent rate, or some form of ‘cash-back’ on stamp duty if you improve your new property once you have completed the purchase.

It is fully appreciated in the current financial situation the country finds itself in, that any form of incentive is probably unaffordable. Our concern is that the government appears to be hanging all its hopes on the Green Deal, and I am unsure how the consumer will react to this scheme and whether there will still need to be incentives considered over and above the details of the scheme.

Certainly we appreciate what is planned within the proposed scheme, but we are concerned that we have not had any form of confirmation that replacement energy-efficient windows will definitely be covered by the Green Deal.

The details of the Green Investment Bank are still not fully known yet, but we would hope this would be an opportunity for cheap finance for manufacturers of energy-efficient windows and all their elements.

Regarding self-employment and taxation in the construction industry – why is the GGF concerned that proposed legislative changes could damage the construction industry's ability to retain a flexible labour supply?

HM Treasury (HMT) and HMRC began a consultation last year to ascertain views on a proposed change to taxation for self-employed workers. All workers who in the past had been self-employed for tax purposes, but not for all other employment law benefits, certain criteria were suggested for self-employment, which were felt to be ill thought-out. The consultation closed and the summary of the responses was printed at the end of the year. We have since had a change of government, and this issue is now being considered again, with a plan to move forward.

There is a need for self-employment in construction because of the fluctuations in time of the year when work is undertaken, and when elements of a project are undertaken. At a time when the construction industry, including the glazing industry, is on its knees, anything that will greatly increase costs for no noticeable benefits seems ill thought-out.

HM Treasury and HMRC brought in a new scheme for self-employment in construction some years ago, called the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). This took some time to bed in, but is now well understood by industry. If there is a proportion of the construction industry not complying with CIS, we feel these culprits should be approached by HMRC instead of changing the system for the whole industry, to catch out the wrong-doers.

We are currently in discussion with both HMT and HMRC to ensure that if this proposal does move forward, it will be manageable for the industry and include criteria that will not damage the glazing industry further.