Improvements needed in home energy efficiency

HOME energy efficiency should be part of the UK’s infrastructure programme to help communities who have been “left behind”, the Government’s climate advisers have urged.

Delivering energy savings through installing insulation or building low-energy homes could put hundreds of pounds a year into families’ pockets – which can “change people’s lives”, the Committee on Climate Change’s chairman Lord Deben said.

A report from the committee sets out what the Government needs to do to cut greenhouse gases from heating and providing hot water for buildings, which make up 20% of the UK’s emissions, and warned “progress to date has stalled”.

The committee estimates that more than seven million walls and lofts in homes need insulating by 2030 to help deliver a 15% reduction in energy used in buildings and keep the UK on track to cut its greenhouse gases.

That includes 1.7 million homes which need solid wall insulation, 2.7 million properties which should have cavity wall insulation and three million lofts which need insulating.

New homes built now should be highly energy efficient properties which can take low-carbon heating technology such as heat pumps from day one, while there needs to be an expansion in district heating networks in cities.

Ministers also need to look at the potential of putting hydrogen into the gas grid, the report from the committee said.

Lord Deben said many measures could deliver multiple benefits, including reducing energy bills and improving people’s lives.

He pointed to a programme in Wales where funding has been used to improve the energy efficiency of whole housing estates, irrespective of whether households are owner-occupiers or renters, with economies of scale reducing costs.

It also used local products, suppliers and installers to boost the local economy.

Lord Deben also said lowcarbon heat pumps had failed to take off in the UK.