District councils to enforce energy performance certificates - Wilson

District councils will become the enforcement authority for Energy Performance Certificates from the start of December, Finance Minister Sammy Wilson said today.

The Minister made the announcement as he delivered the keynote speech at the Building Control Northern Ireland Annual Convention at the Hilton Hotel Belfast, during which he welcomed the close working relationship his Department has with District Council Building Control.

The Minister said: “For some months now officials from my Department, and Building Control, have been working together to develop protocols and procedures to allow the transfer to district councils of enforcement duties under the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008.”

The Minister continued: “This morning, a new Statutory Rule was made that will transfer the enforcement authority for Energy Performance Certificates, Display Energy Certificates and Air Conditioning Inspections from my Department to district councils. The Department of Finance and Personnel will continue to enforce these regulations in respect of council buildings. The legislation will come into operation on 3 December 2009.”

Notes for editors:

1. The Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) Regulations (NI) 2008 were made on 10 April 2008. They introduced requirements to provide an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) when a building is constructed, being sold or rented. An EPC may only be produced by a trained and accredited assessor who will arrange to visit a property to do the assessment.

2. The Regulations provided for this by way of a 3-phased implementation as follows:

30 June 2008: Sale of existing dwellings.
30 September 2008: Construction of new buildings.
30 December 2008: Rental of existing buildings; sale of existing non-dwellings.

3. In addition the Regulations also introduced a requirement for larger public buildings that are visited by the public to display prominently a Display Energy Certificate. This is similar to an EPC but derives its rating from the actual energy consumed by the building in a 12-month period.

4. The Regulations also established an inspection regime for all air conditioning systems over 12kW output.

5. The Regulations implemented the requirements of Articles 7, 9 and 10 of the European Directive 2002/91 on the energy performance of buildings. Other requirements in this Directive were implemented by amendments to the Building Regulations Part F (Conservation of fuel & power) made in August 2006.

6. Initially, the Department was the sole enforcement authority for the regulations, and has undertaken various awareness-raising activities to encourage compliance. To date over 48,000 EPCs have been recorded on the official register.

7. The Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (Amendment) Regulations (NI) 2009 was made on 12 November 2009 and will come into effect on 3 December 2009. This transfers enforcement authority from the Department to district councils. The Department will remain the enforcement authority against councils.

8. Media enquiries to DFP Communications Office on 028 9052 7375. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.