星空传媒

The potential impact of the new legislation has finally dawned on our sector. Or at least on those who鈥檝e been paying attention 鈥� I suspect there are still vast tracts of individuals in property and construction who haven鈥檛 got a clue what鈥檚 going to happen.

As we all know, Part L (and the integrated Energy Performance of 星空传媒s Directive) is aimed at mitigating climate change. But it鈥檚 also going to have some important corollary effects on construction.

For years, this industry has complained about the lack of new blood. But have we really tried to do anything about it? Some half-hearted ads in the national press last year didn鈥檛 produce a flood of newcomers. And the next generation of engineers seems to be completely missing.

Yet the new Part L will require a massive rise in numbers of workers to carry out all the required checks on boilers and air conditioning. Perhaps the government has already begun its human cloning programme in secret, because that鈥檚 the only way we鈥檙e going to get enough bodies to deal with the workload.

There have also been long-standing moans about the poor margins in construction. Now the government seems to expect the industry to foot the bill for research into energy efficiency. What makes the ODPM think that we can suddenly afford this when for years training budgets have been slashed to microscopic levels?

As one anonymous delegate at a recent conference on Part L said: 鈥淥ur industry is rubbish, and there鈥檚 no way we can cope with this.鈥�

Sad, but it seems to be true. Part L comes into force in 15 months. Construction will come face to face with some long-standing problems. The question is, how quickly can we sort them out?

Karen Fletcher, Editor