£650,000 wasted in heating bills by new homes every year

A new report commissioned by the Energy Saving Trust reveals that new homes are emitting 6,000 tonnes more carbon dioxide each year than they should be as a result of non-compliance with minimum air tightness standards.

With around 1 million new homes set to be built over the next 5 years, over 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions released into the atmosphere could be saved each year.

Philip Sellwood, CEO of Energy Saving Trust said: "The report shows that non-complying homes emit 14 per cent more carbon dioxide emissions than complying homes. However, this figure is likely to be even higher, as poor air tightness is an indication of overall poor quality construction and is likely to have consequences in other areas of energy efficiency. The scheduled inclusion of mandatory pressure testing in the building regulations in January 2006 will put an end to this non-compliance at a minimal cost.”

The UK government is falling behind on its climate change targets for 2010 and is currently reviewing its Climate Change Programme to look at where further policies could make up this shortfall. In this context, it is imperative to ensure the effectiveness of existing policies and to build to high standards now if the Government is going to reach even tougher targets set for 2050.

The report "Air Tightness Standards and Pre-completion Testing" was undertaken by the Building Research Establishment on behalf of the Energy Saving Trust, and pre-empts an announcement from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister which will detail the changes to Part L of the Building Regulations due for January 2006.

Other key points that the Energy Saving Trust believes should be included in these changes include:

• The scheduled Building Regulations should be implemented in January 2006.
• The target should be kept as close to a 25% improvement over 2002 standards as possible, as in the consultation proposals.
• A large-scale training, dissemination and publicity programme is needed to avoid any delays.
• Compliance monitoring, including mandatory sample pressure testing, should be kept in.
• An announcement to tighten the building regulations by a further 25% in 2010.
• Research into the technical issues around a further 25% should be launched immediately
• The Energy Report, as detailed in the EU Directive, for new build homes should be introduced in January 2006, under the new building regulations.