Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 25
Fourth Report - Energy Efficiency of Existing Homes
Published 22 Mar 2021
Paragraph 112
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)
In its forthcoming Heat and Buildings Strategy, the Government, acting on the advice of the Climate Change Committee, should set an ambitious and realistic trajectory for owner occupiers to achieve minimum EPC C standards. The CCC recommends that by 2028 all properties achieve EPC level C at the point of sale. This is a hugely ambitious target and the Government must set out how it plans to raise public engagement and revise its delivery mechanisms to achieve this target and specify where exemptions may be necessary. These measures may include cost caps to be applied to such work and exemptions from the requirement to meet these standards: for instance, on the grounds of affordability or for properties recognised as hard to treat. It should also 60 Energy Efficiency of Existing Homes ascertain the risks of creating a two-tier mortgage market and long-term blight for owner occupiers and the private rented sector of hard-to adapt properties and identify and implement measures to avoid this impact.
From: Environmental Audit Committee, Fourth Report - Energy Efficiency of Existing Homes (HC 346), paragraph 112, 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.