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I love the film Groundhog Day. The combination of Bill Murray's priceless hangdog face with a great plot conceit make it one of the more enjoyable hours and half on a screen. The story of a man stuck in the same day attempting to achieve the near impossible clearly also makes the romantic comedy excellent analogy-fodder. So it is for the struggle this decade for anyone - politician, industry leader, environmentalist - to get any grip on our leaking and creaking stock of existing buildings. There have been the equivalent of 18 Groundog Days for the existing stock so far this century in the form of Government reviews, inquiries, reports and white papers etc. What price the Existing Stock Groundhog Day spell being broken?
It seems an incredibly tough nut to crack. As Paul King points out today today the spectre of Whitehall and industry fragmentation has ensured a frustrating period for those arguing for action, with little clarity of purpose or direction. Building stepped into the breach on this just over two years ago, starting a campaign called 99%, alluding to the amount of our built environment is just that, already completed. Most magazine campaigns have a set goal in sight with a deadline to hit it, but this was an attempt at achieve something different- to make the issue exist in a meaningful way in Whitehall, which had hitherto spurned any interest in it.
What happened next? Momentum started to build and there were a series of hint in the late summer of 2006 of the Labour administration being piqued or kicked into action. There was talk of it playing a key part in a series of upcoming energy and climate change bills. Yet as seasoned watched David Strong points out in his weary analysis on the issue in the Building Sustainability channel last week the Government has never been able to grasp the mettle on old as it has with new buildings. This despite a wide range of solutions being available to crack the refurbishment of our estate. Much of this is charted in a new 99% section we created today on the Building website.
Now we have a fresh consultation, this time being under the direction of the the UK Green Building Council. Can the comparatively fresh-faced and enthusiastic new kid on the block step in and save the day? Will we all wake up one day next year and hear Gordon Brown/Alistair Darling discussing cavity wall insulation, feed-in tariffs and VAT reductions?
The aforementioned King spoke to me convincingly about why the time is right now for action to happen imminently. There is new pressure on Gordon Brown with upcoming carbon targets and budgets to set and cross-party consensus that the existing is where we have at urgently, he argues. If the penny can't drop of just how significant the energy wasted from homes is now then it never will, and hopefully current soaring energy prices can only hammer home the point even harder. If the UKGBC can convince Gordon et al of the importance of this issue, and that immediate action is vital, it will make for a similar magical ending to when Murray finally woos Andie MacDowell.
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