WHY WE MUST SUPPORT ALEX ROWLEY’S PASSIVHAUS BILL
Keith Baker - 14 July 2022
As a researcher working on fuel poverty and energy policy, I rarely get an opportunity to comment on any genuinely useful and progressive legislation being put before the Scottish Parliament, but this is one of those times.
Sometime in the next parliamentary year, MSPs will be voting on the Domestic Building Environmental Standards (Scotland) Bill being proposed by Scottish Labour MSP Alex Rowley, and if you care about fuel poverty and improving the quality of Scottish housing, then it’s vital that this Bill passes.
The Bill is intended to bring the Passivhaus Standard into the Scottish Building Standards and, whilst it’s not a complete solution, it goes a long way to addressing many of the problems we have long criticised the Scottish Government for not tackling. If passed, it could significantly reduce the energy costs for householders and, in doing so, mitigate fuel poverty at a time when rising energy prices are contributing to the wider cost of living crisis. And Alex, along with former MSP Neil Findlay, are due a lot of credit for engaging with experts as part of its development. Indeed, their consultation on the Bill, is easily the best consultation our Energy Working Group have responded to – and we respond to a lot of consultations! (Full disclosure: we were approached for our input prior to the consultation launching, and are looking forward to engaging more with them as the Bill moves forward).
Now we wouldn’t be experts if we couldn’t find some areas where there’s room for improvement, but there’s every chance that these will be addressed in the final text and, and I stress this, there is nothing in the current proposal that couldn’t be addressed either through a friendly amendment or as part of future revisions to the Building Standards. This means that if the SNP and Scottish Greens vote against it - as they have done against the public energy company (or companies), free school meals, and rent controls – they will be doing a great disservice to the people of Scotland.
The areas where we see room for improvement are as follows.
The Bill only addresses new build, which makes up a tiny fraction of the turnover of our housing stock however, this makes sense as retrofitting all Scottish housing to the Passivhaus Standard is unlikely to be the best option for decarbonising our homes (although it’s certainly possible). What we would like to see is the introduction of a Residential Energy Conservation Ordinance along the lines of the legislation passed in California in the early 1980’s and subsequently adopted more widely around the world. RECO’s generally require all new homes and all those changing tenancy or being extended by more than 25% of their floor area to be brought up to the current building standards within a period of one year, after which they cannot be resold or re-let until the improvements are made. And, critically, once that countdown starts it doesn’t stop regardless of however many times the home is sold or re-let during that period. California’s legislation was so successful it has been credited with helping the state survive its electricity crisis in 2000-2001. It’s shameful that the Scottish Government has still not adopted RECO-style legislation, especially given that this was one of the key recommendations I made in a report they commissioned way back in 2012. However, this Bill creates valuable leverage to get such legislation on the table.
Another area where we see room for improvement is regarding the scope of energy efficiency measures, some ofwhich may not or do not fall entirely within the Passivhaus Standard. Specifically, these are those which incorporate significant amounts of thermal mass for modulating heating and cooling, and / or those which use naturally passive methods (e.g., designing for maximum solar gain, incorporating inlets and stack vents for controlling airflow and ventilation) to negate the need for mechanical ventilation and heat recovery. However, Passivhaus buildings have been constructed with high thermal mass and using natural building materials (e.g., hempcrete) and so this isn’t an insurmountable problem. Indeed, there is an easy way to fix it by requiring developers to submit evidence of how the emissions and energy efficiency standards dictated by the Passivhaus Standard would be met by any alternative measures in advance of consent for construction being granted, and to validate these through post-occupancy monitoring and evaluation. Once this has been done the measures could then be retrospectively in the Building Standards, and there are already precedents for adopting such a legislative approach, for example in the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive.
Finally, the Passivhaus Standard is, by design, focussed on maximising building performance, and so the proposed Bill omits the opportunity to also mandate, where appropriate, the installation of building-mounted renewable energy technologies – particularly solar thermal and photovoltaic panels. This is a bit of a moot point as it might be better handled by additional revisions to the Building Standards, but we have to raise it as we support 100% Renewable UK’s green buildings campaign, and because the Scottish Government’s wider efforts to decarbonise Scotland do not go anywhere near as far as they need to, meaning that we may well regret missing any opportunities to maximise our generation of renewable energy.
Therefore, I repeat, there is no reason for the SNP and Scottish Greens to oppose the Bill. And here’s the other really good bits.
If you’re reading this, you’ll probably also have read some of our many criticisms of Energy Performance Certificates. Well, at least as far as new build goes, the Bill does away with them. Unlike the existing model, the Passivhaus Standard has been subject to extensive verification and can be reasonably be relied upon to deliver modelled performance in practice. That would be a huge step forward and, if you add in the option of verifying alternative measures post-occupation, then we basically eliminate all the problems caused by using EPCs for new build. This, alone, is one reason why the Bill must be passed - and it might even get me a step closer to retirement.
That confidence in the Standard would also be great for the market, and for home buyers. Yes, we would expect to see a marginal increase in purchase prices (probably in the order of 5-10%) whilst the major developers adjust, but those smaller developers and architects already well-versed in building to it would get a much-needed leg up. And home buyers would be able to rest assured that they’d be paying a bit extra for a genuinely energy efficient, and comfortable, home. Yes, that means that the Scottish Government (and the Energy Saving Trust) would have to admit that by pushing EPCs they’ve been selling homeowners and tenants a pup but, unfortunately, we can’t change many decades worth of evidence. And doing so might finally move on the debate about how we should be assessing existing homes.
You can help support the Bill by emailing your MSPs to tell them why they need to vote for it and, if you have time, please respond to the consultation – it’s open until July 27th and it’s not a long one. And if you need any inspiration you can find our response, written in partnership with the BEAM Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University, the Energy Poverty Research initiative, and Atkins Architecture, here.
Dr Keith Baker FRSA is a Research Fellow in Fuel Poverty and Energy Policy at the Built Environment Asset Management (BEAM) Centre, Glasgow Caledonian University; a Co-founder of the Energy Poverty Research initiative; and a Board Member and Convenor of Common Weal’s Energy Working Group.