Change is coming and it’s sooner than you think.
When I was a young man, how much different would my life be if I knew then what I know now? How many choices I made would have had a better beneficial outcome if I had known what was around the corner?
Well, I have been telling people for a long time now that change is coming. If you build a house to the present building code, you are going to lose money. How? Come with me while we nip forward in time, just like the ghost of Christmas future in Ebenezer Scrooge.
Below is the graph that can be found on the MBIE website along with more information about the building for Climate Change Work Program. The timeline of when changes are going to be implemented.
You will see they are starting at the end of this year! One which will have a dramatic impact is the mandatory energy rating for all buildings. Does a house today with single glazing compare on price to one with double glazing? Furthermore, would you buy one? The answer for most of us is no, not out of choice.
That is because 20+ years ago when they made double glazing mandatory people realised the benefits. Today it is accepted that we should have double glazing over single glazing.
Now let’s jump forward to the end of 2025 and people are understanding the mandatory energy ratings on houses just like they do on a refrigerator.” Oh, so if I spend more on the fridge it has lower running costs, so works out cheaper in the long run, right” Yes, that is correct. “But I can have a choice to buy a cheaper fridge”. Yes, you can. But you will not have the choice to build a less Energy Efficient house because they are changing the building code.
Not only that, they are changing them again and again until 2030 (ask MBIE) That is when all new buildings will have to meet the agreed standards set out by the Paris treaty 2015.
“Yes, but I will live in my relatively new house built to today’s building code and have higher energy bills”. Yes, you will but by 2050 all the existing stock will have to meet the same standards. “How are they going to implement that? They can’t make me do that”.
Erm, they will, because they will introduce a carbon tax. If you live in a home that uses lots of energy, be prepared to pay the tax! “They can’t do that; they want to get re-elected”. You’re missing 2 points here. 1, it doesn’t matter which party is in power the country signed up to do it. 2. Have you watched the news, every year for the last how many. Kids off school marching to parliament demanding more is done for climate change. How many of the first protesters are now 25+? Those 17-year-olds this year will have a vote next year, they want change and the demand for change will only get stronger.
