A coalition of UK businesses and MPs have called on the government to back new regulations for domestic energy efficiency.

The Westminster Sustainable Business Forum (WSBF), which includes firms such as Veolia and Southern Water, hosted a roundtable discussion with the British Board of Agrément (BBA) focusing on how the UK can promote energy saving measures and behaviours.

Attendees said although related professions such as plumbers and electricians were highly regulated, there is currently no framework to link rules in these sectors to new controls for energy efficiency installers.

They recommended government should clarify plans over extended periods to allow companies enough time to comply, public procurement should mandate efficiency performance-linked outcomes and the Building Performance Network needs more support to enable better decision-making on policy, regulation and funding.

WSBF members and the BBA said the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) did not encourage investment in research and development and required ‘quantitative and qualitative improvement’ if the UK was to significantly improve the energy efficiency of its building stock.

BBA Head of Marketing Wendy Ajuwon said: “This roundtable discussed a number of important issues that it is keen to see action on and opened the debate on other matters.

“Great strides have been made in improving building energy performance in recent years but there is still much more to be achieved.”

Article taken from Energy Live News on 15/05/2018.