The UK has some of least efficient housing stock in Europe[1]. In order to meet UK commitments under the Paris Agreement to stay below 1.5 C, and legal obligations under the Climate Change Act 2008, as amended in 2019, emissions from heating and powering homes must be reduced to zero by 2050.

As stated in the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s report[1]: “To meet the UK’s climate change targets, we will need to improve nearly every home in the UK with energy efficiency measures at a rate of more than 1.5 homes every minute between now and 2050."

However, the response from the government has been woefully inadequate. The government scrapped its only ‘build back better scheme’ after only six months, leaving it ‘without a plan’[2].

Not only would providing support for insulating home help meet climate targets, but would also:

• help reduce fuel poverty
• provide hundreds of thousands of jobs
• reduce excess deaths due to poor housing
• give a boost to the UK economy in a more efficient way than the £895 billion[3] used in quantitative easing

The government has ignored the large number of reports and strategies proposed for improving the efficiency of homes[4,5,6,7,8]

We call upon the government to implement a long term, properly funded strategy to insulate homes.

1. UK ‘Worst In Europe’ On Housing And Fuel Poverty According To New Research, Energy Bill Revolution, 2015 (http://www.energybillrevolution.org/news/uk-worst-in-europe-on-housing-and-fuel-poverty-according-to-new-research/
2. UK government scraps green homes grant after six months, The Guardian, 2021 (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/27/uk-government-scraps-green-homes-grant-after-six-months
3. What is quantitative easing?, Bank Of England (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/quantitative-easing
4. Scaling up retrofit 2050, Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2020 (https://www.theiet.org/media/5276/retrofit.pdf
5. House Of Commons Business, Energy and Strategy Committee: Energy Efficiency Committee, Royal Institute of British Architects, 2019 (https://www.architecture.com/-/media/gathercontent/work-with-us/additional-documents/businessenergyandindustrialstrategycommitteeenergyefficiencyinquirypdf.pdf
6. Greening Our Existing Homes National retrofit strategy, Construction Leadership Council (https://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/CLC-National-Retrofit-Strategy-final-for-consultation.pdf
7. Retrofit For The Future Reducing energy use in existing homes, A guide to making retrofit work, Technology Strategy Board, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/669113/Retrofit_for_the_future_-_A_guide_to_making_retrofit_work_-_2014.pdf
8. Building the Future: The economic and fiscal impacts of making homes energy efficient, Cambridge Econometrics, 2014 (https://www.sustainableenergyassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Building-the-Future-The-Economic-and-Fiscal-impacts-of-making-homes-energy-efficient.pdf