On Wednesday 4th December the ESNZ Committee will hold
a one-off session on retrofitting our homes for net zero.
Building on the evidence received in the previous Committee's
inquiry Heating our
Homes, the Committee will invite two stakeholder panels
to consider the policy changes needed to deliver low carbon
heating and energy efficient homes.
UK housing stock accounts for around 17% of national emissions
and is among the least energy efficient in Europe. While good
progress has been made to decarbonise electricity, natural gas
still accounts for around 85% of fuel used for domestic heating
and cooking.
Many UK consumers are also struggling to afford their heating
bills: the percentage of households in England spending more than
10% of their income after housing costs on domestic energy rose
to 36.4% in 2023.
The previous Government set a target of 600,000 heat pump
installations per year but achieved just 72,000. Its flagship
home energy retrofit programme, the Green Homes Grant Voucher
Scheme, was beset by problems with delivery, upgrading around
47,500 homes out of 600,000 originally envisaged. Skills
shortages appeared to be a major factor in the problems, and the
scheme delivered only a small fraction of the expected jobs: it
can take 4 years to train the specialists required.
The project accounted for just £314 million of its original £1.5
billion budget and £50 million of that was administration costs -
more than £1,000 per home upgraded.
The new Government committed in its manifesto to upgrading five
million homes over five years with the £6.6bn Warm Homes Plan.
This is expected to include grants and low-interest loans to
support families to invest in insulation, low-carbon heating and
home improvements.
Alongside this, the Government has committed to boosting minimum
energy efficiency standards for private rented homes and social
housing.
However, details of the Plan are not expected until spring 2025,
even though consumer energy bills are set to rise again this
winter.
The Committee will question industry and consumer stakeholders on
issues including:
- What factors are contributing to
the under-delivery of government retrofit schemes?
- How will the public afford the
switch to low carbon heating?
- Does the Energy Performance
Certificate framework help consumers to make informed decisions?
- How can we equip the workforce with
the skills required to upgrade UK homes?
- How should the home heating
transition be coordinated at a national and local level?
The Committee is not making a full new call for evidence for this
session, but if you are an interested stakeholder and would like
to share your views please email the Committee at commonsesnz@parliament.uk
Although this is not a formal call for evidence, please read our
guidance on content,
length and format to help the Committee consider your
submission.
