Government's green HQ gets woeful rating for energy efficiency

Energy efficiency assessors have handed an 'F' rating to the headquarters of Communities and Local Government (CLG) - the department responsible for cutting public buildings' carbon emissions.

The rating, which is the second-worst under the Display Energy Certificates initiative, could cause red faces within the department seeing as it drew up rules requiring all public buildings over 1,000m² to comply with the scheme from October.

The Guardian reported that the 10-year-old Eland House, in central London, picked up the poor rating because of inefficient heating and ventilation systems and an unexpectedly high occupancy rate.

An earlier assessment of the building's design, but not its fuel consumption, suggested the building would receive a 'C' rating, the paper said.

A spokesman for the CLG said: "Our rating for Eland House tells us we must clearly do better to make a difference to our energy performance. We are now acting on recommendation from our advisoryreport to help us improve future ratings."