Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 12
Fourth Report - Energy Efficiency of Existing Homes
Published 22 Mar 2021
Paragraph 71
Environmental Audit Committee Energy Efficiency of Existing Homes All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend that the Green Homes Grant scheme be urgently overhauled and extended to provide a genuine long-term stimulus to the domestic energy efficiency sector. The scheme should not be scrapped or quietly wound down. The Government must address the design and administration issues with the scheme, and all allocated funding that has not been spent by the end of March 2021 should be rolled over into the next financial year. A multi-annual scheme must be delivered to provide the financial support to owner occupiers and build trust within the industry to encourage installers to get accredited and enable companies to hire staff. In its response to this report the Government should set out how it intends to revise the types of measures included in the scheme, streamline the application process, including the number of quotes required for application, and remove unnecessary bureaucracy at every step.
From: Environmental Audit Committee, Fourth Report - Energy Efficiency of Existing Homes (HC 346), paragraph 71, 22 March 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 May 2021 (deadline 22 May 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government sets out a broad programme on home energy efficiency, agrees with parts of the Committee's analysis, but did not extend the Green Homes Grant voucher scheme.
- On the voucher scheme, the government did not adopt the recommendation to extend it: it judged it "more beneficial overall to close the voucher portion" and to "reform and expand" the Local Authority Delivery element, citing the need to protect the taxpayer.
- It holds to its aspiration for "as many homes as possible" to reach EPC band C by 2035, "where practical, cost-effective and affordable", and plans to publish a Heat and Buildings Strategy "shortly".
- It says it will consult in 2021 on regulatory options to improve the energy performance of owner-occupied homes.
- On Stamp Duty rebates for energy efficient homes, the government says trials "are not under active consideration at this time"; it also does not propose lower VAT rates, citing pressure on public finances.