§ Mr. Evansasked the Secretary of State for Energy (1) if he will estimate the savings to the United Kingdom's energy bill of bringing the building regulations up to the same standard as the best of European Economic Community countries;
(2) if he will estimate the savings to the United Kingdom's energy bill of bringing the building regulations up to the same standard as the average of European Economic Community countries;
(3) if his target of a 20 per cent. saving on the United Kingdom's total energy bill during Energy Efficiency Year is based on any assumption of changes in the building regulations.
§ Mr. David HuntThe £7 billion estimate of the savings the nation could make through energy efficiency is not based on any specific assumption on future building regulations which apply to new construction.
Because of the different forms of regulations within the European Economic Community, only a broad estimate of the possible impact of different countries' regulations can be made; if all new homes in the United Kingdom were 257W built to the energy efficiency standards currently applied to Danish housing, the effect after 10 years would be a reduction in energy consumption nationally of less than 1 per cent. The application of average energy efficiency standards within the Community would result in a reduction of less than half that figure.