Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee last week released a report calling for government-backed energy efficiency installations to be urgently stepped up. A “national mobilisation, or ’war effort’, on energy efficiency to reduce household energy bills, cut climate-changing emissions and reduce reliance on fossil fuel imports” is needed, it says.
19 million homes need retrofitted insulation
As we wrote in July 2022, Britain has among the least energy efficient homes in Europe. 59% of homes in England have Energy Performance Certificates below rate C. If extra loft insulation, double glazing, solar panels and other fittings had been installed in them, residents would be making large savings now.
The government has been slow to act. After a peak in energy efficiency installations in 2012, the rate fell massively, as shown here.
Fewer than 100,000 upgrades were completed in 2021. If it had remained at the 2012 level, consumers could have saved £1 billion on their 2022 bills, the BEIS Committee stated in 2022.
Missed opportunities
Despite knowing in advance about expected huge price rises for gas and electricity, “ministers missed a window of opportunity to accelerate efficiency installations in the warmer months of 2022”, says the report. The £400 Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) has saved households from even worse bills this winter, but is a sticking plaster. If action had been taken over the last decade, or even last year, the EPG wouldn’t have been so necessary.
“The Government could have gone further and faster”, said Environmental Audit Committee Chairman, Philip Dunne MP. Time was wasted while Government was having leadership contests, economic crises and multiple cabinet changes.
Householders need action fast. The Chancellor recently announced an Energy Efficiency Taskforce and further investment from 2025; three winters away. The Committee is calling for immediate funding and investment in people to annually achieve one million upgrades, rising to 2.5 million homes by 2030.
Such a change would be a win-win-win-win: save money, keep people warmer, reduce carbon emissions and improve energy security.
