The Communities and Local Government's (CLG) decision to introduce transitional arrangements for implementing the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is an admission there aren’t enough qualified assessors to undertake the surveys and that much more needs to be done to educate building owners about their responsibilities, according to Envos, the independent specialist environmental consultancy.

All commercial buildings are obliged to have obtained their Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) by 1 October 2008, but the CLG has now introduced transitional arrangements, whereby a commercial property needs an EPC by the date that the building is sold or rented, or by 4 January 2009, whichever is sooner.

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Wade Barker, Managing Director of Envos, said: "This decision is not unexpected given the small number of assessors that are currently fully trained. Equally there are still far too many commercial property owners who are unaware of what an EPC is and how they get one, and while there are a few providers like ourselves who have fully trained assessors over the country as a whole there certainly aren't enough to assess every building before it is marketed and sold by October 1st.

"It is critical that the Government helps to get assessors trained now and gets information to commercial property owners about their responsibilities under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Unless this happens then we are not going to be able to get on with the important business of making commercial properties more energy-efficient and reducing the carbon footprint of our buildings and many property owners could unwittingly find they are breaking the law by failing to get an EPC."

(CD/JM)