Green House Programme (Hansard, 10 November 1992)

§ Mr. Baldry

The two-year Green House programme was launched in 1990 by my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Planning as an important element of the Government's policies to combat global warming through increased energy efficiency. Its aim was to establish a national network of replicable energy efficiency demonstration projects in council housing. All the available resources have been allocated to or earmarked for 155 individual projects in 121 authorities, following a competitive bidding exercise to identify the most cost-effective schemes. The preliminary results are very encouraging. Overall, schemes are expected to deliver carbon dioxide savings of some 50 per cent. over current levels, with a 40 per cent. reduction in energy consumption. In addition to environmental benefits, these improvements are expected to reduce future management and maintenance costs of the houses concerned and bring major benefits to tenants from reduced fuel bills. My Department continues to monitor the performance of key projects and will publish further information in due course. At present about one quarter of authorities' annual expenditure on mainstream repair and improvement of their stock is devoted to energy-related measures.

The Green House programme suggests that, if best practice were followed, authorities could achieve higher output from this investment. The Government have therefore decided to follow up the programme by actively promoting the application of its positive lessons by all housing authorities. From next year, we will expect authorities to take fuller account in their housing 741W investment decisions of the need to improve the energy efficiency of their stock and to reflect this in their annual housing investment programme submissions. To assist them, my Department will be issuing guidance on the lessons of the Programme, and on the steps authorities can take to ensure that energy efficiency is an integral part of their housing strategies.