Comment

Tony Hawkhead

Since my last column on energy efficiency Groundwork has commissioned a little survey into the attitudes of householders towards domestic energy efficiency measures.

Since my last column on energy efficiency Groundwork has commissioned a little survey into the attitudes of householders towards domestic energy efficiency measures.

The survey – conducted by Ipsos Mori – polled more than a 1,000 people across the UK and threw up some interesting results, the first being that households in London have the lowest number of energy efficiency measures installed across England and Wales.

There are a number of reasons for this – to name but two, London’s often transient population and large number of people living in private housing relying on their landlords to install these measures. This must, however, be worrying for a city that must cut 60% of its carbon emissions by 2025.

London’s buildings produce 70% of the city’s emissions. More than half of that 70% comes from homes. Local authorities across the capital are wrestling with the problem, and the mayor has committed £3m to reduce carbon by the very media savvy amount of 20.12% by the year 2012, employing ten ‘low carbon zones’ that utilise existing and new technologies.

This is, of course, welcome news, and Groundwork is pleased to be supporting the low carbon zone scheme in a number of areas across London. But it is important to not put all our eggs in one basket and to assume that we can rely on technical measures alone.

There are a growing number of organisations operating at the technical installation end of the energy efficiency market but, in my view, there are not nearly enough focusing on influencing individual behaviour change in our communities. At the moment the government seems to be prioritising the technical side over good old (and efficient) human contact.

It seems potential MPs are similarly unconcerned. Worryingly, a recent poll conducted by ConservativeHome of 144 Tory prospective parliamentary candidates found that climate change was their least important issue and reducing Britain’s carbon footprint rated as their lowest priority. Given current opinion poll predictions, this is scary stuff.

To have any hope of meeting our carbon reduction targets, this attitude must change. After all, a house filled with tools to save energy cannot be efficient if the householder doesn’t know how and why they should use those tools effectively.

The next government needs to address this imbalance and ensure that, as the tools are put into place, householders know where to get the support they need to understand how they can keep their homes warm, avoid unmanageable fuel bills and reduce carbon emissions.

Which leads me nicely to the second striking result from our survey. Ipsos Mori found that people who did not have cavity wall or loft insulation would be more likely to invest in them if a local energy adviser was on hand to give personal advice. A local adviser could offer guidance, plus help on accessing grants and finding reliable organisations to carry out the work.

The survey also found that people would prefer to use an organisation recommended by a friend or relative to install energy saving devices.

The question is who is best placed to provide this advice? Local authorities can find it difficult to spur their tenants into action on the issue for fear of being seen as tyrannical, and energy companies are often viewed with suspicion and as having their own best interest at heart.

The third sector has no such vested interests, but does have the required expertise in community engagement. Organisations like Groundwork operate at the heart of our communities and can build upon existing relationships with community groups to raise awareness on the issue at a local level.

I’m not calling for an army of energy ‘experts’ – I’m calling for dependable and sound advisors to explain things in a language householders can easily understand, to lay out the options and possible costs and to help people take charge of the technology.

These advisers could remove the technical barriers and help householders see that, yes energy efficiency measures are a tool to help them do their bit for the environment, but, more importantly for many, helping them understand that fuel efficiency can help them to save serious amounts of money. This is a particularly powerful argument in these more austere times but, even more important for those hundreds of thousands of people who are having to choose between eating and heating, many of them the most vulnerable and elderly members of our society. Like a lot of sensible, joined up, policy the prizes on offer are big – and affordable.