The last Government pre-warned us of Part L changes

Earlier this year, the then Labour Government Housing and Planning Minister John Healey announced that the Government were going to be intoducing new building regulations, which they hoped, would make the domestic housing sector more conscious of environmental issues.

As a consequence, UK property owners planning to rennovate or extend or update the look of their premises will now legally from 1st October 2010 have to ensure they install energy efficient windows in order to reduce the amount of heat being wasted, and reduce carbon emissions.

With the current Building Regulations expiring on 30th September 2010, builders working on new housing will also have to ensure the properties they build after 1st October 2010 are greener, as part of an effort to save two million tonnes of carbon a year – equivalent to three million vehicles being taken off the country’s roads.

When making the announcement earlier in 2010 Mr Healey said: “More than one in three of the buildings we’ll be working in and living in by 2050 have not yet been built, so action now can make a real difference in the future.”

As ususal, it seems the British home owners and taxpayers are going to have to fund the Governments commitments made in the Kyoto Treaty to cut the UK’s carbon emissions. As of October 2009, 187 states had signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, aimed at combating global warming

No grants, encouragement and incentives to get property owners to take long term energy measures, only legislation and taxation to ensure that if any property owner does want to improve their property by replacing any windows or doors, they now have no choice but to pay for the best most energy saving thermally efficient products money can buy, without any sort of Government assistance, and probably at a higher VAT rate – great!