Last Autumn I finally\u00a0got around\u00a0to looking into getting external Solid Wall Insulation (SWI) on the gable end of my Edwardian semi.\u00a0 The memory of freezing in blankets, hats and gloves in last year\u2019s big chill with the heating full on, but only getting to about 15-16\u02daC max, was fresh and raw in my mind.\u00a0\u00a0 I had also recently met a lovely lady from Sto \u2013 the solid wall insulation product experts \u2013 who seemed confident that doing just the one, side wall would be workable and make a huge difference to our thermal comfort and heating bills.<\/p>\n
Apart from being slightly less frostbitten in my home this winter, my other motivation was to test out the mechanism by which SWI was installed.\u00a0 I want to experience the process,\u00a0from the initial interactions with the council through to how the installation process impacted on the householder, as it is a much more involved process than, say, installing Cavity Wall insulation.\u00a0 I also promote it widely to owners of solid walled homes in my work, but don\u2019t have direct experience of it and how it performs, which is a gap in my \u2018toolkit\u2019 that needs filling.<\/p>\n
Mass roll out of external SWI is an essential element of the Green Deal \u2013 actually getting to these 6-8 million \u2018Hard-to-Treat\u2019 homes and making a marked difference to their efficiency and fuel bills is at its core and vital to its sucess.\u00a0 So far installation numbers for SWI are in the thousands per year, mainly because it is an expensive and, in the eyes of householders, a complicated product to install. \u00a0\u00a0This installation rate needs to increase by a factor of about 10 quickly, as in this decade, if the Green Deal is going to deliver the carbon savings it is hoping for in the timescale required.<\/p>\n
Lorraine from Sto, and Jason from P3 Projection coatings, who would be doing the install, visited for a technical survey and measure up in November and from the practical side of things, it was going to be challenging (mainly due to a narrow side alleyway which made the scaffolding tricky) but doable.\u00a0 Hooray, first hurdle overcome. Tick that box.\u00a0\u00a0 They went away to work up a cost for the project and my task was to contact the council to ensure there were no issues with installing SWI on my house.<\/p>\n
This is where the complications start.\u00a0 Just before Christmas I received a response to my initial enquiry to Lambeth Planning Dept asking whether there would be any issues to me putting SWI on my gable wall.\u00a0 I\u2019m not in a conservation area and neither is my 1905 Edwardian semi of any listed status; so, hopefully no issues there.\u00a0 However, the Planning Dept at Lambeth have come up with an alternative \u2018issue\u2019, one that is rather difficult to take seriously.<\/p>\n
Basically the council has decreed (unofficially of course, I\u2019d need to apply officially to get this officially\u00a0\u2018in writing\u2019) that because the external SWI would be over around 100mm in depth (that\u2019s just 10cms folks, on just one wall of the house) it does not come under \u2018permitted development rights\u2019 and hence is not permitted without first going through the planning permission process.\u00a0 Planning permission that cost \u00a3100s, if not over a thousand pounds, and takes up to 12 weeks, with no guarantee of success.\u00a0 \u00a0Apparently any addition that is over 100mm is seen as an \u2018Expansion of a dwelling\u2019 \u2013 now this is faintly ridiculous; how can a cladding which sole purpose is to increase the thermal efficiency of an old leaky home, be considered as an \u2018expansion\u2019 of a home in any sensible way?<\/p>\n
I reproduce the text from the council:<\/p>\n
\u201cMy colleagues in planning are of the view that the application of an insulating material and a render skim would normally result in the \u2018enlargement\u2019 of the property. The extent of enlargement would be dependent on the thickness of the insulating material and the render. We have had very few proposals for the external rendering of properties and from my limited understanding the render thickness normally ranges from 100mm upward.<\/em><\/p>\n The national planning regulations allow for single family dwelling houses to have \u2018permitted development rights\u2019 which allow some work to be undertaken without the need for planning approval. The regulations make reference to the \u2018enlargement\u2019 of a property and present circumstances where enlargement would be \u2018permitted development\u2019 and other circumstances where it would not. I have reproduced the text below for your consideration:\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Naturally, I will be contesting this rather \u2018jobsworthy\u2019 view and also attempting to get responses from other councils on what their views on this issue are.\u00a0 Will SWI become another \u2018postcode lottery\u2019 I wonder?\u00a0 If this is a widespread view amongst local councils,\u00a0it could have a devastating effect on the ambitions of the Green Deal to finally crack the nut \u00a0that would help \u2018Hard to Treat\u2019 homes come up to a decent standard in terms of thermal efficiency.<\/p>\n The BBC is potentially interested in this story, so if anyone reading this has had a similar response to from their council on this issue, please get in touch with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last Autumn I finally\u00a0got around\u00a0to looking into getting external Solid Wall Insulation (SWI) on the gable end of my Edwardian semi.\u00a0 The memory of freezing in blankets, hats and gloves in last year\u2019s big chill with the heating full on, but only getting to about 15-16\u02daC max, was fresh and raw in my mind.\u00a0\u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-energy-efficiency"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions\/1931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengumption.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}