Report Launch
Cutting Carbon Costs: Learning from Germany's Energy Saving Program

A new report by Anne Power and Monika Zulauf has been published by The Brookings Institution

Download the full report Cutting Carbon Costs: Learning from Germany's Energy Saving Program in Adobe PDF

Download the executive summary here

Summary:

Energy shortages, unpredictable and high energy prices, waste, pollution, and fears of climate change all drive a sense of urgency in the West about reducing its energy dependence on unreliable sources. Europe imports over half its total energy from volatile producers around the globe. While the United States is able to meet somewhat more of its energy demand from domestic sources, its per capita energy consumption level is twice that of Europe's.

• The cheapest and most cost-effective path to greater energy security is energy saving, and the biggest, most certain place to do that is in our built environment, which in developed Western countries uses half of all energy and generates half of all greenhouse gases. Most of this energy usage is wasted by leaking out through walls, windows, roofs, floors, doors, and through inefficient equipment.
  
  
• All members of the European Union (27 countries) have adopted highly ambitious production targets for renewable energy, and equally ambitious reduction targets for CO2 emissions, down at least 20 percent from 1990 levels.
  
  
• Germany is leading the way in developing "green" technologies and has the most ambitious energy-saving program in Europe, aiming for a 30 percent reduction in energy usage by 2020, and a 30-percent renewable energy share, consisting mainly of biomass, wind, and solar.
  
  
• Germany's energy saving program is based on three pillars:
  • A clear legal framework and tight regulation at the national level, requiring energy efficiency upgrades to buildings and increased use of renewable energy sources among electricity providers;
    
    
  • Strong financial incentives through subsidies and loans to reduce energy consumption in the built environment at all levels of government (at the national level, these are provided via a public investment bank sponsored by the German government); and
    
    
  • Information, promotion, and behavior change, working through regional and local bodies, developing enforceable standards through Energy Performance Certificates, and supporting model projects all over Germany.
  
  
  
• Since 2006, Germany has created nearly half a million new jobs in renewable energy, and over four years, around nearly 900,000 jobs in retrofitting homes and public buildings, such as schools. Green investment, new green technology development, and renewable energy exports are all major growth areas in Europe's strongest economy. By having taken these steps, Germany remains on track to meet aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets by 2020 and 2050.
  
  
• Germany's experience - its successes and lessons learned - provide a solid evidence base from which nations like the United States can "leapfrog" Europe, and tackle even more pressing energy and climate change demands through deliberate public and private action.

Download the full report Cutting Carbon Costs: Learning from Germany's Energy Saving Program in Adobe PDF

Download the executive summary here

Report Launch
The KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau) Experience in the Reduction of Energy Use and In CO2 Emissions from Buildings: Operation, Impacts and Lessons for the UK

Mark Schröder, Paul Ekins and Robert Lowe (UCL Energy Institute, University College London) and Anne Power and Monika Zuklauf (LSE Housing and Communities, London School of Economics)

The widespread devastation of the German housing stock at the end of the Second World War resulted in the creation, as part of the Marshall Plan, of a remarkable bank: the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). The bank proved a most effective vehicle for lending, recovering and re-lending Marshall Plan funds for the reconstruction of German infrastructure and buildings. In subsequent decades the bank expanded and diversified its activities.

The UK has a number of new policy initiatives related to the improvement of home energy efficiency, including the Green Deal, Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and, less directly, the Green Investment Bank. While the particular history and experiences of KfW mean that its approaches to home energy efficiency could not be transferred directly to the UK, nevertheless a comparison between conditions in the two countries shows that there are a number of important lessons from the activities of KfW that are relevant to what the UK is hoping to achieve.

The Green Deal, Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and the Green Investment Bank are all welcome new policies in the right direction. But on the basis of the KfW experience, they do not go far enough on any of the key dimensions: the regulatory framework, the level of the financial incentive or the clarity of the message about integrating home energy efficiency and micro-generation using renewables for both electricity and heat. More will need to be done. In considering this, much can be learnt from what the KfW bank has achieved, how it has achieved it, and the overall policy framework that has supported these achievements.

The full report can be downloaded in Adobe pdf, and a brief summary is available here

Report Launch
CASEreport 66: Obstacles and Opportunities

Obstacles and Opportunities is a short report based on what 200 parents told us over a ten year period of visiting them in their homes in low-income urban areas. We have produced three books based on this research: EastEnders: Family and Community in Urban Neighbourhoods; City Survivors: Bringing Up Children in Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods; and Family Futures: Childhood and poverty in urban areas (to be published by Policy Press in July 2011). The research that went into the three books informs this report but here we pull together a unique body of evidence and quotations. The particular focus of this report is on the opportunities and obstacles facing children and young people growing up in disadvantaged areas and the struggles of parents to overcome these barriers and build a better future for their families. We hope that this report will underline the sense of urgency about providing more, not less, for children and young people in disadvantaged areas. For these areas are still remarkably different from the average and the future of our society hinges on them becoming more equal and more integrated.

The report is written by Anne Power, Nicola Serle, and Helen Willmot and is now available to download in Adobe PDF format.

Report Launch
CASEreport 63, Housing Futures: our homes and communities. A report for the Federation of Master Builders

Small Land Sites Could Solve Housing Crisis

Reusing small empty sites of up to two acres could more than meet the UK's housing demand without building on green field land. This must be coupled with upgrading existing buildings, reclaiming and remodeling empty buildings, converting and upgrading homes to make existing neighbourhoods attractive. These are key findings from a new research report commissioned by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) from the London School of Economics (LSE). This approach would generate local jobs but requires new skills, more training and apprenticeships, the report argues.

The report, 'Housing Futures: Our Homes and Communities', written by Professor Anne Power and Laura Lane of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the LSE examines the four big pressures - supply and affordability of homes; environmental limits; social cohesion; and economic change - driving the future of housing policy in the UK.

The report highlights that there is capacity within existing communities to create all the new homes we need. Small available sites of under two hectares within built up areas are rarely counted and micro-sites of half an acre of less are literally too numerous to count. Yet it is estimated that even in inner London, where population density is highest and land scarcest, there are enough micro-sites to supply all the new homes we need.

If we make our existing homes greener and more energy efficient, the research found that the building industry had enough work in this field to keep every small and medium sized builder running to stay on top for the next 30 years. The retrofitting market for small builders offers, the report says, 'a very rosy future painted green', as homeowners realize the savings that could be made through making their homes more energy efficient. To capitalize on this growth market, the report calls for higher standards within the building industry, particularly the 200,000 Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) which make up 99 percent of building industry. A 'Code for Sustainable Existing Homes' would drive up the energy efficiency standards of our existing homes and conversions. Accreditation and Competent Person Schemes enhance the status of the building industry, as long as they are linked to real experience and hands-on training.

Professor Anne Power, Professor of Social policy at the LSE said:
"We need to modernize our housing stock, reclaim and remodel empty buildings, fit new homes into small spaces within existing communities, and do all this with a fraction of the energy, materials and waste of the current building industry. This approach should generate many new jobs and skills in existing neighbourhoods; it should support training, apprenticeships and accreditation schemes; it should foster a new eco-retrofit supply chain. It will be quickly embraced by go-ahead small builders who know which side their bread is buttered on!"

Richard Diment, Director-General of the FMB said:
"Retrofitting is becoming an important part of any small builder's workload but this can only increase if SMEs can demonstrate the value and skill of their work which is why the FMB is investigating the need to start its own competent person scheme. We hope to use this to further improve the reputation of members that join the FMB, through regular on-going training and a clear grading system. Construction SMEs carry out almost 50 percent of all construction work in the UK, yet builders are often viewed with suspicion. In many other countries building is a respected trade, almost on a par with the professions and this is mainly due to accreditation and competency schemes. We recognise the important role such schemes will play in improving the reputation of the UK building industry."

Download the report: CASEreport 63, Housing Futures: our homes and communities. A report for the Federation of Master Builders by Anne Power and Laura Lane, June 2010.

For further information please visit the Federation of Master Builders website

Report Launch
Soup Runs in Central London: The right help in the right place at the right time?

This report - written by Laura Lane and Anne Power of LSE Housing and CASE - aims to provide an independent and objective perspective on soup runs in the London Borough of Westminster. A broad understanding of soup run has been used throughout - to include any mobile food distribution service operating primarily to serve the homeless within the borough.

The issue of soup runs in Westminster has become a contentious and controversial issue with strong advocates both for and against their operation. For some, soup runs are a valuable, life-saving resource that help to feed and support rough sleepers and other vulnerable people. For others, soup runs represent an outdated, poorly targeted and uncoordinated service that supports and sustains damaging street lifestyles. We wanted to find out whether and how soup runs in Westminster fitted into the commitment of the Government to provide 'the right help, in the right place at the right time'.

Soup runs in Central London:'The right help in the right place at the right time?' By Laura Lane and Anne Power, July 2009.

Read the executive report (in Adobe PDF)

Read the full report (in Adobe PDF)

CASEreport 55
Report to Incommunities on the About Turn Project, Anne Power, Laura Lane and Nicola Serle

CASEreport55 is an independent account of the work of the Incommunities About Turn project to support households in difficulty with their tenancy.

The project has run for 3 years and has a track record in dealing with difficult tenancies. LSE Housing examined tenancy records, evidence from staff interviews and family development, in order to highlight how much progress has been made, what barriers and difficulties are faced now and how this work fits within the wider Bradford city and national context.

The aim of the report is to present an overview of the costs and benefits of this project from the perspective of new social priorities in the housing world and its difficulties with the most marginal tenants.

The report is available to download at http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cr/CASEreport55.pdf