editorial Alex Smith, Editor email: asmith@cibsejournal.com twitter: @alexsmith68 CIBSE is holding an election briefing to guide you through the political smog descending over Westminster Party time P oliticians have always been happy to take a turn at the lectern at the annual Ecobuild conference in London. It is an opportunity to sell key policy initiatives to the largest gathering of built environment professionals in the UK. This year energy secretary Ed Davey had the opportunity to trumpet the Liberal Democrats green manifesto as well as announce coalition government initiatives, such as 70m more funding for the Green Deal and 3m for projects tackling fuel poverty popularly known as boilers on prescription. The government has continued to support renewables and as well as backing for the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project announced in the Budget, it recently agreed to fund another 315m of renewable energy projects. What will happen after May is less certain. Current polls point to no outright winner and suggest a colourful kaleidoscope of potential coalitions. To guide you through the political smog descending over Westminster in the coming months, CIBSE is holding an election briefing in London on 29 April. To prepare the ground, CIBSE technical director Hywel Davies has outlined the current regulatory landscape in this months Regulations column. He suggests that a new broom should be taken to some existing regulations to eliminate overlap and reduce the resource and skills required to enforce energy reduction policies. One current policy instrument that has almost universal backing is the Display Energy Certificate (DEC) but with one major exception the current government. It seems intent on diluting the one piece of legislation that enables building operators to keep tabs on performance. The proposals were attacked by Lord Deben, chair of the advisory committee on climate change, and CIBSEs response to the consultation called for a strengthening of the DEC regime to help make energy and cost-savings in the public sector. Away from politics, the Technical Symposium offers a welcome return to engineering reality. We preview some of the 60-plus papers, and Northumbria Universitys Jess Tindall explains in depth why cold water systems are prone to being oversized. Tindall offers essential insight, and there is plenty more to be had at the conference at UCL, London on 16-17 April.