‘Chance was missed’ to cut energy bills

OWNERS OF newly-built homes are being hit with higher heating bills because tough new energy efficiency standards were scrapped, a report has said.

If the “zero carbon homes” policy had been implemented as planned in 2016, people moving into new homes would be saving more than £200 a year on their energy bills, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) study said.

The zero carbon homes policy was first devised in 2007 as a requirement that new-build homes would not result in the net release of any carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and was set to be implemented in 2016, the report said.

But it was scrapped in 2015 by then Chancellor George Osborne – after having been watered down since it was announced – as part of plans to boost productivity, including increasing house building. Dr Jonathan Marshall, ECIU head of analysis, said: “Successive governments have struggled to devise effective domestic energy efficiency policies.”