Not.
Department of Energy and Climate Change confirmed that the Government was considering a variable stamp duty rate to encourage people to green up their homes.
‘There are many incentives that we are considering to tackle home efficiency. No final decision has been made, but we are considering it,’ a spokesman said.
…
Since 2008 all homes put up for sale have had an energy performance certificate, which ranks them on a scale from A for the best, to G for the least efficient.
To avoid paying the higher stamp duty, a home would need to be upgraded to at least a band E.
Ah yes, because when the home information packs were ‘scrapped’, there was still something stuck to our shoe. The Energy Performance Certificate, which is mandated by the EU.
The proposals would be introduced alongside the Government’s Green Deal – a £90 billion scheme to cut the fuel bills of 14 million homes.
Under the Green Deal, householders will be offered "free" green makeovers by energy companies, local councils or DIY chains from 2012.
‘Free’? Ah – as in more freedom? Oh..
The money spent on new insulation, double glazing or replacement boilers will be claimed back from the savings made in energy bills.
The Government says the green makeovers are essential if the UK is to meet its legally binding targets of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 34 per cent of their 1990 levels within 10 years.
Ah yes. Greenhouse gases. The science isn’t settled there, even.
Why do physicists keep silent? Because the greenhouse-effect is based on backradiation and to understand that backradiation is unphysical, requires understanding the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. But the 2nd Law is a mystery to modern physicists and thus a modern physicist cannot say what should be said, namely that backradiation violates the 2nd Law and thus the greenhouse-effect is fiction.
Of course, such thought could be outlawed as a heresy by the EU*.
Or, it could just be outlawed in one EU country, that could then seek to arrest and extradite people who publish skeptical blogs elsewhere in Europe where no such offence exists.
FFS.
AJ
* This is a link to the BNP website. I don’t accept that it can be dismissed solely on that basis.
Al Jahom's Final Word 
The money spent on new insulation, double glazing or replacement boilers will be claimed back from the savings made in energy bills.
Except that you will never get back the money spent on a new boiler because they insist you have a condensing unit which, although more efficient than the old type when run continuously, are less efficient in a domestic situation when they are switching on and off all the time. Besides, the spare part prices are out of this world (and you’ll be needing them).
As for double glazing, it takes about 20 years to get the money back on this and (if you worried about that sort of thing) the “environmental costs” of making them far outweigh the energy savings.
“This is a link to the BNP website. I don’t accept that it can be dismissed solely on that basis.”
That’s a relief, I thought my mind was going to be stirred up into a hate-filled jelly just by seeing those three letters next to each other! =P
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Dont forget the other aspect- this will involve forcing private citizens (on pain of higher taxes or in other words a fine) to buy the wares of large diy chains. You can bet your bottom dollar small independent businesses won’t see a penny of this ‘free’ cash.
Variable rate stamp duty? What about all those people living in ‘listed’ properties who aren’t allowed all this wonderful whizzy, tacky, made in China, cheap ‘n narsty ‘green technology’. What is required here, a complete demolition of older housing? I can see that one getting past the planning stages, not.
The thing that really scrolls my knurd about all this ‘green’ thinking is the complete lack of real, grown up, joined up thinking.
/facepalm
I would not bet the farm on the theory of global warming violating the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Have a good look at this
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/07/23/quantifying-the-greenhouse-effect/
Do not fall into the usual warmist trap of a rush to judgement if the newest theory fits your world view.
I always count to a hundred when anyone comes out and says they have discovered the way to turn lead into gold.
Oh, I absolutely agree, and I make no claims to have any answers whatsoever.
I do claim the right to prod greenies though.
From my now defunct blog:
We’ve just had the compulsory EU energy survey done on the house. The results were fairly predictable, more loft insulation and change of light bulbs. From the report:
We could “typically” make and annual saving of £34 by increasing the loft insulation to 270mm. A quick google for some prices and fag packet calculation shows a cost of around £150 if I do the job myself, a 5 year payback. This doesn’t take in to account the cost of me going to buy the stuff or the extra generated CO2 in that journey*.
The only problem with this typical saving is that I’m not convinced. When it snowed heavily last winter the snow on my roof thawed at about the same rate as the snow in the garden, which, to my simple mind, shows that the current insulation is fairly effective.
I could also save £45 a year if I replace all the lights with those low energy light bulbs. Well that is being forced on us and will have to happen over time, but I refuse to destroy the value of the existing bulbs and replace them with those damned things that make it impossible to read comfortably any sooner than I have to so I’m not going to bother working out a payback period.
Under the measures that cost over £500 I am told that if I replace my boiler I could typically save £39 per year. So even if I could get a boiler that meets this threshold of £500 that is a 13 year payback, but a new boiler of the size we need is going to cost over £1000 so we are now looking at a 26 year payback. Anyone want to bet that the new boiler will last that long before some new EU edict means it needs changing? Even if it lasts mechanically, which I doubt.
But there’s more. Our current boiler was installed in 2004 and cost c.£1,200. Lets say it has a life of 15 years that means it cost us about £80 a year in capital costs and as it still has about 9 years of life left that means it still has an economic value of around £560. So to make a saving of £39** a year I would have to destroy over £500 worth value in the existing boiler and find another £1200, including removing the old one and installing the new one, to buy a new one. You shouldn’t need a to do Economics 101 to figure that one out.
Next, I can save £37 if I install solar water heating. A quick google shows I can expect to pay between £1,500 and £3,000, a payback of 40 years at best and 80 years at worst. At 53 I’m unlikely to see those benefits.
Finally, if I install 2.5kWp of photovoltaic panels I can save £172 per year. Another google consultation shows that a 3.15Kw system costs £13,000. I can’t be bothered doing more detailed research so lets be generous a say that the 2.5Kw system costs £10,000 (2.5/3.15*£13000, but it doesn’t work like that) which would give me a payback of 60 years. Just as well the system comes with a life expectancy of 40 years then! Our son might just live long enough to get that benefit.
And if I do all of this I can improve my CO2 rating from E48 to D61, or E52 if I am such a bad citizen and enemy of Gaia that I don’t install solar water heating and power. Apparently this will cut my CO2 emission from 6.6 tonnes per year to 6 tonnes but it doesn’t say what impact this will have on improving Gaia’s health or reducing global warming, my guess is the square root of sod all.
Well, I’m really glad that I was forced to part with £75 plus VAT to be told all that and they left me to carry out my own cost benefit analysis. Just think, if I hadn’t paid for that survey I could have bought 12 bottles of my favourite white wine and still had some change. So I suppose that’s the health fascists as well as eco-fascists placated.
*Two and a half years of that payback will pay for the report!
**What’s the betting this is at the top end of the guesstimate as well?