Indoor air quality and ventilation are now on the Parliamentary agenda more than ever
Having pressed the Government hard to acknowledge the importance of ventilation to our health over the last 5 years, it was encouraging to see ventilation finally being advocated by Government in the face of COVID-19. This resulted in direct guidance from Public Health England (PHE), the Department for Education, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on improving ventilation, including mechanical ventilation.
We now have a significant number of MPs scrutinising the Government on ventilation and IAQ, which has been a key goal for the campaign. In fact, over 50% of references to IAQ in Parliament over the last 10 years came in 2020-21 alone, and there were 125 mentions of ventilation in Parliamentary Questions from April 2020 – April 2021. It was particularly heartening to see Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Minister, Rebecca Pow, state: ‘The Government recognises the importance of national leadership on the issue of indoor air quality’. A key milestone in our mission to ensure Government recognises the importance of IAQ.
Another key success was seeing our response to the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee Inquiry on Air Quality being directly referenced by the Committee in the section on indoor air pollution within their report.
Additionally, our campaign to drive MVHR as an Energy Saving Measure helped result in Early Day Motion 1505: VAT on Zero Carbon Domestic Renewables, and generated support from MPs Steve Baker, Andrew Jones and Will Quince.
Healthy Homes and Buildings (HHB) APPG
The My Health My Home campaign is a proud supporter of the HHB APPG
Meeting with the Shadow Housing Secretary, Thangam Debbonaire MP – 9 September 2020
The theme of this meeting was to drive the message around taking a holistic approach to healthy homes. Encouragingly, this resulted in Ms Debbonaire advocating for a Westminster Hall debate on healthy homes and offering to submit Parliamentary questions to further the cause.
Meeting with Housing Minister, Chris Pincher MP – 8 December 2020
This meeting outlined the news that some progress had been made on certain ventilation standards in the Government response to the part F consultation of the Future Homes Standard. Whilst encouraging, still more needs to be done, particularly on mechanical ventilation.
Green Retrofit Session - 13 May 2021
Colin Timmins, BEAMA Director of Building Technologies, spoke at the Green Retrofit Session held by the HHB APPG which looked at how we can retrofit homes and buildings with an emphasis on healthier living environments. Lord Callanan, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at BEIS and BEIS lead in the Lords, revealed during the session that a cost benefit analysis of green retrofit and healthy homes and buildings is a key issue for Government. Importantly, he revealed that ventilation was becoming an increasingly important issue and his team in BEIS were looking at.
We launched a new campaign slogan in 2021 - ‘VENTILATE WHEN YOU INSULATE’ and this was picked up and echoed by many during the session.
Intergovernmental Roundtable – 8 July 2021
An Inter-Departmental Working Group Session featuring representatives from PHE and MHCLG was held to discuss ‘Building Back Healthy Homes and Buildings’. Encouragingly, the Head of Social Housing Safety, Decency and Climate Change revealed that the role of ventilation is being considered as part of the Decent Homes Standard review to combat damp and mould issues. She also told us that there would be a consideration of minimum standards as part of the HHSRS review. Regarding PHE, it was revealed that the Healthy Places Team would form part of the new Office for Health Promotion, one of two new bodies to come out of the up-coming PHE re-structure. Representatives from BEIS, DHSC and DEFRA were invited but unfortunately did not attend.
Air Pollution APPG
We were particularly pleased to be involved with and support the action taken by the Air Pollution APPG and its Chair, Geraint Davies MP, on the Environment Bill. This saw support from 90 Parliamentarians for a letter sent by Geraint to Government asking them to support the APPG’s COVID-19 and Air Quality Strategy, which included a proposal on IAQ and it’s inclusion in the Environment Bill.
To support the APPG campaign to get IAQ and WHO guidelines recognised in the Environment Bill, we engaged all MPs requesting that they back Geraint Davies’ amendments to the Bill. This resulted in support from key MPs , including John McDonnell, Ian Lavery and Beth Winter.
In addition, Rebecca Pow revealed that the Chief Medical Officer and Government Chief Scientist held a roundtable on IAQ with various government departments, including the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and DEFRA, and that the Government is preparing an IAQ report on VOCs and PM 2.5 (via the Air Quality Expert Group) in 2021.
Green Homes Grant Scheme
Further to engagement with the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), pressing the case for a holistic approach in the Scheme, ventilation was included in the Scheme as a supporting measure. However, it is our view that this was not clearly explained within the Scheme and that ventilation improvements should have been listed as a secondary measure at the very least. With the Scheme being scrapped, BEAMA is now calling on Government to ensure there is funding for ventilation improvements moving forward, whether through a new Scheme, Net Zero Carbon initiatives or a dedicated ventilation grant.
My Health My Home - Green Homes Compliance Scheme
VENTILATE WHEN YOU INSULATE
In an effort to reach a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the UK government has sought to increase the energy efficiency of existing homes. This can make homes more airtight, causing indoor air quality to deteriorate which can be harmful to occupants’ health. It is therefore essential that energy efficiency measures are matched by improvements to ventilation, to ensure health and wellbeing is protected.
Our Green Homes Compliance Scheme was established to help installers easily identify industry accredited ventilation products that will meet the Building Regulations requirements and deliver effective ventilation for homeowners and residential landlords.
Clean Air Day 2021
As an official supporter of Clean Air Day, we executed a successful campaign for Clean Air Day , with an abundance of activity across our My Health My Home twitter page across the day. This included sharing educational infographics to inform our followers and provide important calls to action
BEAMA maps out ventilation pathway to help tackle COVID-19
In July 2021 we secured a number of features authored by BEAMA Director of Building Technologies, Colin Timmins, exploring the importance of ventilation in tackling COVID-19:
2. H&V News
Expert Ventilation Guidance
A key focus of our activity was to provide expert guidance to ensure the public and professionals alike understand the issues around indoor air quality and ventilation in a simple, visual and easy-to-use format:
3. A Public Guide to Ventilation and Helping to Reduce the Spread of COVID-19 in your Home
