The EPC for a dwelling is currently a required document within a Home Information Pack (HIP). The Labour Government has been criticised for its shambolic implementation of HIP legislation and it became a political football to kick around whenever housing issues arose and goals needed to be scored. The Conservatives have promised to scrap HIPs "within weeks", if elected.

Whether or not you believe the growing amount of evidence that suggests the primary purpose of the HIP; to improve the home buying process, is succeeding, the EPC actually has a different purpose. An EPC is to assess a dwelling for energy usage and carbon emission and to advise how to improve it to save energy, save money and reduce carbon emissions - not directly a part of the home buying process at all.

So if HIPs are scrapped, will the EPC survive?

Without doubt EPCs are a key weapon in the war against Climate Change and as such are now part of European Law. Any future Government will have to (and should want to) retain it, so despite their plan to scrap the HIP, the Conservatives accept the EPC must stay.

However, Grant Shapps, the Shadow Housing Minister has yet to demonstrate any understanding of the content, use or value of an EPC: This is rather worrying as one of the Conservatives flagship policies; its Refit Policy is based on the energy rating contained within an EPC.
You would expect such a bright and ambitious man to spend time with Energy Assessors discovering what they do and the content of EPCs in order to be in a position to know what he is talking about, so it was therefore deeply concerning when Shapps recently tabled a question; "315661: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what percentage of properties entered onto the domestic Energy Performance Certificate database to date have had an energy rating of more than 450."

Fortunately, John Healey, the current Housing Minister, who knows his stuff, was on hand to come to his rescue; "Domestic EPCs provide a rating for the energy performance of a building in the form of a rating from A to G using a scale of 1-100. It is not possible for a dwelling to have a rating of more than 100 and therefore, none of the properties that have had an EPC lodged on the Domestic EPC Register have been given an EPC rating of more than 450."

Our only hope is that whoever wins the Election will start to take the matter of Climate Change and the massive job of improving the nation's houses and other building stock much more seriously. The benefits for everyone are colossal - reduced energy consumption, reduced energy bills and reduced carbon emissions: Not to mention the huge growth potential for businesses that supply the products needed together with the contracting industry involved in installation and related work. Andrew Morphet