The environmental conversation continues to gather momentum in a variety of ways across all areas of the mortgage market and beyond as forward-thinking businesses formulate ways in which to deliver sustained outcomes within their operations and out in the wider community.
From our perspective, the environment is at the core of everything we do as a business.
We are serious about reducing our negative impact and developing a comprehensive strategy to supply our services in a more sustainable and responsible manner, while engaging with all our stakeholders in this journey. Our recent announcement of the appointment of Jonathan Bourke, as director of retrofit underlines this commitment.
For example, lenders and valuers are working closer than ever to provide guidance and information around the impact of the significant climate change challenge.
All with the end goal of educating and supporting new borrowers and homebuyers who are looking to reduce emissions and make their homes more energy efficient.
An estimated 25 million homes in the UK require some form of energy improvement work. This is a huge number and in order to generate a significant environmental impact, the performance of older housing stock has to improve.
With that in mind, the recent launch of an eight-week long consultation to gather input from RICS members and industry professionals on the new RICS Residential Retrofit Standard for 2023 represents a positive move in the right direction.
This is said to be in direct response to increasing demand for high quality, residential retrofit advice, spurred on by increasingly high energy prices and UK government net-zero targets.
The consultation also comes on the back of a consumer survey carried out in July 2023 by RICS, in conjunction with YouGov, which showed that 36% of homeowners would not know how to go about making their homes more environmentally friendly.
Similarly, 78% of respondents also stated that they would find it helpful if their surveyor could offer retrofitting advice when purchasing a property.
Energy efficiency levels in individual properties will inevitably differ but they do share a common theme in that they require careful consideration and robust planning processes to create sustained outcomes and achieve notable results. Cost is also a key consideration.
Homebuyers and homeowners will continue to face a variety of issues and challenges when it comes to the cost of borrowing and the rise in general living expenses.
This means that some compromises may need to be made along the way, which further highlights how critical independent professional advice will be in helping people make the right decision for them and their properties over the short, medium and longer terms.
Support is also needed from the highest levels and, it’s not just about the ability to retrofit. In order to have any real, lasting environmental impact, a mass movement has to be initiated by the government, industry leaders and pioneers within their respective fields to deliver a sensible and coherent approach to meet and maintain better energy efficiency standards and improve education around this important issue.
The RICS initiative represents an encouraging development, but we remain at the beginning of this journey. And this is a journey which needs to fast-tracked in order to generate sufficient momentum and make the necessary environmental impact.
Matthew Cumber is managing director of Countrywide Surveying Services
