In a move that could be hugely beneficial to the construction industry, the European Commission has announced their intention to increase the energy efficiency of buildings in Europe by increasing member state’s overall energy efficiency by 30% by 2030.

This new target would see the governments creating increased incentives to retrofit existing building stock, including homes in order to ensure they’re more energy efficient.



Although the policy has to be ratified by the European Parliament and the European Council before it becomes legal it’s likely this will go through and it will continue a trend we've seen for a number of years now with demand for energy saving products growing significantly.



Over the last couple of years, it seems new buildings are increasingly being over-spec’d by their architects and owners in order to reduce the energy bills of properties in a future in which energy costs are likely to be high. One such high selling product is the Permavent Fol breather membrane which offers huge insulating properties above and beyond the national and European requirements for breather membrane.



Günther Oettinger, vice-president of the European Commission for energy, said the target was “ambitious” but that “realistic” adding our aim is to give the right signal to the market and encourage further investments in energy saving technologies to the benefit of businesses, consumers and the environment.”



It’s likely that governments will initiate accelerated development schemes with front loaded financing to make sure they reach their targets (which will need to see energy efficiency increase by above 2% annually.)



Generally this will be a good move for the construction industry and should see the building stock dramatically improve over the next 15+ years. It may also help the stop start nature of the UK’s energy efficiency market which has been historically variable based on piecemeal government funding.