Recommendation 9

HM Government Acknowledged

The Government is committed to improving the energy efficiency of homes in England. There has been good progress improving the energy efficiency of households but there is more to do. 47% of homes in England now have reached the Government’s 2035 target of achieving EPC C levels, up from 14% in 2010. The Government is firmly committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. To accelerate a reduction in energy demand, the Government announced a new long-term commitment at the 2022 Autumn Statement to drive improvement in energy efficiency to bring down bills for households, businesses, and the public sector, with an ambition to reduce the UK’s final energy consumption from buildings and industry by 15% by 2030 against 2021 levels. The Energy Efficiency Taskforce (EETF) has been established by the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) to support a step change in the reduction of energy demand through accelerated delivery of energy efficiency across the economy. The Government announced the appointment of Alison Rose DBE as Co-Chair of the Energy Efficiency Taskforce (EETF) on 21 February. To support this new target £6 billion of new funding will be made available from 2025 to 2028 to improve consumer homes, in addition to the £6.6 billion allocated in this Parliament. This provides long-term funding certainty, supporting the growth of supply chains, ensuring a scale up of delivery over time. The Government ‘Help to Heat’ schemes ensure homes will be warmer and cheaper to heat. The Government will deliver upgrades to over half a million homes in the coming years through our Social Housing Decarbonisation, Home Upgrade Grant Schemes and Energy Company Obligation Scheme. These schemes are providing significant energy efficiency upgrades and low-carbon heating measures to low-income households living in the worst performing homes in England, to tackle fuel poverty and make progress towards net zero 2050 and save consumers money on their energy bills. Energy efficiency measures installed under current Government schemes mentioned above must be done in accordance with the PAS 2030 and PAS 2035 standards to ensure installations are done to the highest quality, protecting the consumer against poor workmanship. To be able to install measures under support schemes, installers will need to be TrustMark registered and MCS certified. The Government recognises the need for a skilled, competent and robust supply chain to deliver the improvements to buildings necessary to meet our net zero targets. On 20 September 2022 we launched a new £9.2m skills competition. The Department will continue to monitor the market and its response to our interventions and are considering options to work with the industry to support training in key skills shortage areas and new routes of entry to increase capacity. In July 2022 Government launched a home retrofit tool on GOV.UK, ‘Find ways to save energy in your home’. Users can get tailored recommendations for home improvements that could make their property cheaper to heat and keep warm. This is the first stage to an enhanced digital provision on GOV.UK and there is a planned programme of work to improve the customer journey and add more functionality. The Green Homes Grant Voucher scheme was designed to provide a short-term economic stimulus while tackling our contribution to climate change. However, we recognise it was not delivering at the rate and scale the government had originally intended, facing a number of delivery challenges. The Green Homes Grant Voucher scheme benefitted 43,200 households, each having at least one energy efficiency measure installed. We are implementing lessons learned in future deliveries. We refocused efforts and funding on alternative approaches to maximise the delivery of home retrofits for consumers who were most in need and supporting the supply chain to keep delivering.