Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Conclusion 9
Fifth Report - Heat resilience and sustainable cooling
Published 31 Jan 2024
Paragraph 66
Environmental Audit Committee Heat resilience and sustainable cooling All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We consider that there are further opportunities to combine existing initiatives on insulation and energy efficiency into a more ambitious and comprehensive housing retrofit programme which addresses the risks of overheating in existing properties. Such an approach, if well designed and delivered, can minimise both cost and disruption while ensuring homes are energy efficient and remain comfortable to live in.
From: Environmental Audit Committee, Fifth Report - Heat resilience and sustainable cooling (HC 279), paragraph 66, 31 January 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 30 April 2024 (deadline 31 March 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the report and sets out its position recommendation by recommendation, declining to mandate use of the Green Infrastructure Framework, to name heatwaves or to run a public information campaign targeting the general public, while pointing to existing measures and consultations.
- On green space, the government "has not chosen to mandate" the Green Infrastructure Framework "at this time", saying it is important to allow local authorities "the space to develop their own policies".
- On heatwave naming, the government says there is "insufficient evidence that naming of heatwaves is effective and there are no plans to introduce heatwave naming"; the Met Office "will keep this under review as research in this area develops".
- On the public information campaign, it says "it is not clear that a public information campaign targeting the general public would be effective" relative to a differentiated approach for those most at risk.
- On a national cooling action plan, it will develop a "cooling outlook document" and is "working to publish" it before the 2026 target date, anticipating publication "in the early part of the next parliament".