Energy Efficiency

If the Green Homes Grant fiasco is any indicator of the government’s climate action, we are in trouble. Next week’s Budget must provide clarity over the future of the Green Homes Grant Scheme, writes Green Party MP Caroline Lucas.

Business Green 24th Feb 2021 read more »

The Chancellor has been sent another letter urging him to fully rollover unspent Green Homes Grant funding into 2021/22. The letter comes from the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group (EEIG), a coalition of industry groups, NGOs, charities and businesss, and follows on from a similar letter penned by 11 NGOs and thinktanks including Greenpeace UK and Friends of the Earth that called on the Chancellor and Prime Minister to improve the scheme over cutting the funding available for it. It follows the announcement that the unspent funds will not be rolled over, with reports also coming out last week that the scheme may in fact be shuttered next month. The £2 billion Green Homes Grant was announced last summer and is designed to provide vouchers for green home technologies such as solar thermal, heat pumps and – in the Local Authority allocation – solar PV.

Solar Power Portal 23rd Feb 2021 read more »

Homeowners in the north west could face 30 years of higher energy bills as they fall behind making their home more efficient, according to new analysis. Houses in London and the South East of the country are likely to meet targets by 2031, according to property data company Kamma, while it might take homes in Manchester and Liverpool until 2061. This could leave homeowners and renters paying higher energy bills in Merseyside and elsewhere for up to three decades, and also put a dent in the UK’s climate plans. The Government wants homes across the UK to reach an energy efficiency score of EPC C by 2030. The EPC system (Energy Performance Certificate) assigns a rating of between the A, the best, and G, the worst. Plugging up leaky homes can help the UK on its target to release no more emissions than it absorbs by 2050, the so-called net zero plan. Household emissions currently make up 22% of the greenhouse gasses produced in the UK. More than 60% of UK homes have a D rating or below, but this fluctuates from 64% in Yorkshire and Humber to 55% in London, Kamma said. Wales and the West Midlands lies at 63% at D or below, while the North West is slightly better at 62%. But rather than narrowing, the gap is widening. In the last decade, there have been more energy efficiency improvements, such as double glazing, insulation or solar water heating, in London homes, than in the North West – the area where progress has been slowest.

Telegraph 22nd Feb 2021 read more »

Business groups are urging the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to keep funding home insulation and other low-carbon measures under the green homes grant, which is under threat from cuts. They warned that moves to reduce the amount of money paid out under the scheme, or abandon it altogether, would make it harder to reach the government’s target of net zero emissions by 2050, and damage the UK’s credibility as host nation of this year’s Cop26 UN climate summit and president of the G7 group of rich nations. More than 25 organisations, including the CBI employers’ association, Energy UK which represents energy suppliers, and the Royal Institute of British Architects, signed the letter organised by the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group. They said an effective home efficiency programme would support nearly 200,000 jobs by 2030, and the resulting cost savings to households would amount to £7.5bn a year. The £1.5bn green homes grant was the flagship policy unveiled last year as part of the government’s pledge to “build back better” after the coronavirus crisis. Under the scheme, homeowners receive subsidies covering up to two-thirds of the cost of new insulation, heat pumps or other low-carbon improvements. More than 100,000 people have applied for the grants since the launch last September.

Guardian 22nd Feb 2021 read more »

The Green Homes Grant is to reportedly be shuttered in March, less than a year after it first began operation. The £2 billion scheme is designed to provide vouchers for green home technologies such as solar thermal, heat pumps and – in the Local Authority allocation – solar PV, and is administered by American firm ICF. However, according to The Times the scheme will be scrapped in March 2021, having first been announced last summer and opening at the end of September 2020.

Solar Power Portal 19th Feb 2021 read more »

Further calls for improvements to the Green Homes Grant are being voiced, with NGOs and thinktanks issuing a letter to the Prime Minister and Chancellor on the subject. Describing the Green Homes Grant as being “beset with challenges”, the 11 organisations – including Greenpeace UK, Friends of the Earth, Green Alliance, Possible, New Economics Foundation and National Energy Action – echoed previous declarations that this is not a result of a lack of public demand but “administrative delays and complications with execution”.

Solar Power Portal 19th Feb 2021 read more »

Landlords will face fines of up to £5,000 if they fail to make properties energy efficient under government plans. Houses could face fines if they are below EPC-C, the third-highest energy-efficiency rating, under plans being considered from 2028. “If we’re serious about the net-zero 2050 target it’s the kind of thing we need to do,” a Whitehall source said. The approach is hinted at in the government’s fuel-poverty strategy, which looks to “drive” £13 billion in private investment by landlords into improving energy efficiency. Ministers want to encourage electricity use rather than polluting forms of heating, such as gas. The government is to publish the “heating and energy framework” in the coming weeks. Policies such as subsidy schemes for wind and solar farms, energy-efficiency programmes and support for vulnerable households cost a typical household £172 a year, or about 15 per cent of an annual dual fuel bill. However, they are overwhelmingly levied on electricity rather than gas: they account for about 23 per cent of a typical electricity bill and less than 2 per cent of a gas bill. Ministers fear the cost involved will deter switching to electric heating and vehicles, both of which will be crucial to decarbonising the economy.

Times 20th Feb 2021 read more »

Green homes sector calls for £1bn funding to be restored. Industry bodies blame poor administration for low uptake of £1.5bn flagship scheme.

FT 17th Feb 2021 read more »

The Green Homes Grant scheme is in such chaos that a huge majority of its £1.5bn budget for this year is unspent. The government has said it will pocket that money, rather than rolling it over to next year’s £320m fund. But the Environmental Audit Committee says that would be a “deeply retrograde step”. Conservative MP Philip Dunne, who chairs the committee, told the BBC: “We need a long-term commitment to helping people insulate their homes – at the very least until the end of this Parliament.

BBC 17th Feb 2021 read more »

Brits so badly hit by fuel poverty during pandemic families are rationing heat.

EXCLUSIVE Figures from the Fuel Bank Foundation reveal that 91 percent of families they helped this year are rationing heat and hot water – and eight in ten sacrifice hot meals to save on heating bills.

Mirror 8th Feb 2021 read more »

A circular letter that clarifies the implementation of the requirements for new buildings to meet regulation 25B of the Building Regulations 2010, which sets out that all new buildings should be nearly zero energy buildings from 31 December 2020.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government 15th Feb 2021 read more »

The government has said householders’ “understandable reluctance” to have tradespeople enter their homes during the pandemic is one of the main reasons for the failure of the Green Homes Grant scheme.

Business Green 12th Feb 2021 read more »

Letter Richard Murphy Visiting professor of accounting, Sheffield University Management School and Colin Hines Convenor, UK Green New Deal Group: There is no better example of what Larry Elliott perceptively terms “capitalism for dummies”, whereby our political systems self-destructively fail to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis, than the unspent 95% of the green homes programme (We’re on a collision course with the planet. But with public support, that can change, 10 February). To reverse this trend, and overcome the social and employment effects of the Covid pandemic, will require a new form of growth – one which only supports an increase in economic activity that improves social conditions, creates secure, adequately paid jobs and seriously addresses the environmental crisis. Just as it appears that the government is beginning to take back control of the NHS from inefficient aspects of private-sector involvement, so the same kind of “smart, activist state” is required to decarbonise and make energy-efficient the UK’s 30m buildings. Such a massive programme providing jobs in every constituency could be paid for by offering green Isas at an interest rate of, say, 1% to attract huge swathes of the £70bn invested in this annually. This programme could be underwritten by green quantitative easing, whereby the Bank of England electronically creates the money involved and no government debt is incurred. Such a multibillion-pound programme could be rolled out in time to act as a global exemplar for Cop26 in Glasgow this November. “Saving for the planet” is also likely to be extremely popular politically, given the growing public support for tackling the climate crisis.

Guardian 15th Feb 2021 read more »

The UK government has announced plans to increase spending on its Energy Company Obligation (ECO) to £1 billion per year until 2026 with the aim of increasing energy efficiency for low income and vulnerable households. Unveiling its Fuel Strategy Policy for England on 11 February, the government pledged to spend £60 million to retrofit social housing and £150 million in the Home Upgrade Grant, while also expanding ECO to enable larger energy suppliers to install efficiency measures. From 2022, the annual ECO spending commitment is also expected to increase 56% from £640 million to £1 billion. The policy states that this commitment is “designed to align with other domestic energy efficiency policies in social housing and the private rented sector.

Current 12th Feb 2021 read more »

Housing, environmental and anti-poverty organisations are calling on the Scottish Government and opposition parties to put more money for energy efficiency into this year’s budget in order to secure a “triple win” and improve people’s homes, create jobs and cut climate emissions. The Existing Homes Alliance, Friends of the Earth Scotland and Living Rent are calling for funding to tackle fuel poverty and boost energy efficiency to be increased to £244million for the coming year, up from just £145.6m allocated so far.

FoE Scotland 12th Feb 2021 read more »

Fuel poverty is the problem faced by households living on a low income in a home which cannot be kept warm at reasonable cost. Sustainable Warmth, the updated Fuel Poverty Strategy for England, sets out how we will tackle fuel poverty, while at the same time decarbonising buildings, so that those in fuel poverty are not left behind on the move to net zero, and, where possible, can be some of the earliest to benefit. The strategy announces the expansion of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) which will run from 2022 to 2026, with an increase in value from £640 million to £1 billion per year. The updated strategy additionally announces details of new funding of £150 million for the Home Upgrade Grant.

BEIS 11th Feb 2021 read more »