My energy career

Housing; energy efficiency; fuel poverty; sustainability; climate change

I was responsible for housing research and something called ‘HIP’ – the Housing Investment Programme – at a London borough up to 1995, when I was approached to write a complex statistical and narrative report in response to new legislation: HECA.

The Home Energy Conservation Act 1995 placed new responsibilities upon local authorities – or more precisely, authorities with a housing responsibility. At the time that meant largely Unitary authorities – including the London Boroughs – and District Councils. So County Council were not required to write a ‘HECA’ report.

That first HECA report was difficult. How do you estimate the energy efficiency of an entire housing stock? How does this vary between private rented, home-owner, council and housing association sectors? How do you measure improvements in energy efficiency over time, in order to know if you are reaching targets? The ‘target’ was set by the relevant Secretary of State, and was essentially to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock by 30 per cent by 2010.

Whilst working for Southwark Council, which at the time owned 57,000 council properties and which also provided a home for the largest housing CHP plant in southern England, I became a champion of CHP – Combined Heat & Power – and saw it as potentially providing a bridge between a carbon economy and a hydrogen economy. Sadly, myself and other professionals I worked with, including one of the UK’s most prominent Energy Economists, were unable to persuade successive governments of the virtues of CHP and local heat networks. A lost opportunity.

Those were the days. A lot has changed since then, and whilst for some time every housing authority had a ‘HECA Officer’ there are now very few of these highly skilled positions left. Home energy officers are very thin on the ground, which is a shame because we need them now more than ever.

A Home Energy Officer is a very special person. One who understands science and technology as well as the impact of energy inefficiency on poverty and health. One who has a strategic overview of energy infrastructure, consumption and prices in their area, and who can at the same time advise a householder how to use their heating controls or switch energy supplier.

I was very lucky to have been elected Chair of the London HECA Forum back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, representing all London boroughs at national level and meeting with regulators, energy companies, manufacturers and Government, amongst others.

Having moved back to Devon it was not long before I was elected Chair of the South West HECA Forum, a very different prospect to London. Before long the ‘HECA’ name was dropped in favour of the ‘Carbon Action Network’ and later still the Association of Local Energy Officers. But now there are very few local government energy officers left.

Throughout my career in energy and climate change I learned a great deal about the environmental science of buildings and became something of a specialist in damp and mould growth, setting up specialist teams to undertake repointing and insulation removal.

I found myself in a constant battle fighting the myths that had grown up around damp, largely emanating from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and an industry that grew up in the 1960’s to offer all manner of chemical treatments that would often cause more harm than good. I trained surveyors myself, not only to be Domestic Energy Assessors but also to identify the nature and causes of damp and mould growth. I took on the job – with experts on hand – to come up with remedies and to provide effective damp treatments.

Away from my professional role I set up a blog which ran for many years – EnergyProfessional. I closed it down back in 2018.

HOWEVER, I continue to maintain an interest in all things energy, fuel poverty, climate change and sustainability related, and occasionally am able to write a post on the subject.