Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 10
Fifth Report - Heat resilience and sustainable cooling
Published 31 Jan 2024
Paragraph 67
Environmental Audit Committee Heat resilience and sustainable cooling All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We therefore recommend that the Government establish a comprehensive national retrofit programme to adapt the UK’s housing stock for both net zero and thermal comfort. The programme should include the following elements to maximise its impact and minimise costs: • Local delivery via local authorities, underpinned by adequate long-term funding; • Prioritisation of vulnerable households; • A fabric-first approach focusing on insulation and ventilation; • Adoption of a cooling hierarchy prioritising passive measures, and then fans, above active cooling mechanisms; • Consideration of the benefits and drawbacks of installing reversible heat pumps, bearing in mind such factors as: (i) whether or not active cooling is likely to be required following installation of passive measures and (if appropriate) fans; (ii) the vulnerability of the building occupant(s); and (iii) progress on decarbonising the national grid at the time of installation
From: Environmental Audit Committee, Fifth Report - Heat resilience and sustainable cooling (HC 279), paragraph 67, 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".