Zero target for carbon ‘will need action on housing’

THE GOVERNMENT’S legally-binding target to get to net-zero emissions by 2050 will be missed without urgent action to “decarbonise” the UK’s housing stock, MPs have warned.

In a highly critical report, the Commons Environmental Audit Committee said Ministers had “significantly underestimated” the cost of upgrading the energy efficiency of domestic homes.

It said the “botched” implementation of policies had been “nothing short of disastrous” resulting in a “chronic” skills shortage in the home retrofit sector and leaving the Government with a “colossal task” if it was to achieve its climate change aspirations.

The committee said the Government’s own experts had warned the targets enshrined in law would not be met without the “near-complete elimination” of greenhouse gas emissions from the UK’s 29m homes.

However, reductions in household emissions had now “stalled”, with about 19m properties in the UK in need of some form energy efficiency upgrade.

It said dealing with the problem could be “far more costly” than the Government’s estimate of £35bn to £65bn – with bills of £18,000 for retrofitting a home, even before the installation of a heat pump.

The committee urged the Government to cut the costs to homeowners by reducing VAT on energy-saving materials and the labour element of renovation work.

Its chairman, Philip Dunne, said: “Government investment to improve energy efficiency has been woefully inadequate.

“Realism needs to be injected into the Government.”

Mr Dunne added: “A much better understanding of cost, pace, scale and feasibility of skills development is desperately needed for net-zero Britain.”