Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Paragraph: 66
The scale of the challenge to retrofit homes is significant, as recognised by the Government...
Conclusion
The scale of the challenge to retrofit homes is significant, as recognised by the Government when launching the Green Homes Grant scheme, claiming it would create 100,000 green jobs. With millions of homes requiring retrofitting to achieve decarbonisation through improved insulation alongside electrification by heat pump installation, or, in due course, potentially hydrogen insertion into the gas grid, the industry requires substantial upskilling and an increase in the trained workforce across the UK.
Paragraph Reference:
66
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
As set out in our recently published Heat and Buildings Strategy, it is vital that we address the energy efficiency of our buildings as well as the energy source they use for heating, if we are to decarbonise our building stock by 2050. In practice, this means ensuring that any new buildings are constructed to the highest standards of energy efficiency, so that they do not need to be retrofitted in future, as well as retrofitting our existing buildings so that they waste less heat and are warmer, healthier and greener. We recognise the need for a skilled, competent, and robust supply chain to deliver the improvements to buildings necessary to meet our net zero targets. Initial progress has been made through the £6.9m skills competition launched in September 2020 to provide 8,000 training opportunities for the energy efficiency and low carbon heating supply chains. Going forward we intend 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 creating more green jobs. Through the Skills for Jobs White Paper, we are reforming our skills system to create more routes into skilled employment in sectors the economy needs, such as housing retrofit. We have put employers at the heart of these reforms. We have existing programmes that currently support construction skills, such as: Skills Bootcamps which offer short, flexible courses in key green sectors such as housing retrofit, and The Engineering for construction T Level which launched in Sept 2021 covers housing retrofit and heat pump installation. We will continue to work closely with industry to develop our training offers so they meet the needs of employers of all sizes. For example, we are making improvements to the apprenticeships levy transfers process, enabling large employers to more easily direct their unused funds to SMEs in their supply chain, sector or region. The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is one of DfE’s Arms Length Bodies. Its purpose is to provide better training within the construction sector. CITB is in the early planning stages of reviewing options to develop and fund a suite of basic ‘green skills’ training modules that embed understanding of carbon and environmental imperative in every aspect of construction.