During an autumn statement delivered on Thursday (17 November), Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said spending of £6 billion to improve home insulation would start in 2025 and that the money would be on top of the £6.6 billion already committed to energy efficiency at the moment. Parliament, according to Watchman.
Hunt added that an insulation task force would be set up to lead the initiative – and to look at incentivizing homeowners to switch fossil fuel boilers with heat pumps or biomass boilers. The government aims to reduce energy consumption in the built environment by 15 percent by 2030, which Hunt said would “protect ourselves from being at the mercy of global gas prices”.
In response to the announcement, Allford welcomed the plans but added that “time is of the essence” and plans to improve energy efficiency must be put on an “accelerated” timetable.
“We very much welcome the Chancellor’s clear statement that we must improve the energy efficiency of our buildings,” Alford said. Additional funding is welcome. But to meet the scale of the challenge, and for people and our economy to benefit from relief, it must be accelerated.
Alford said the new task force had to “learn from past failures and build a skilled and competent supply chain” to ensure the government’s latest commitment to home isolation is met. The latest policy comes on the heels of Boris Johnson’s decision Cancellation of £2 billion grant for green homes Last year after problems with the scheme.
“As an institution and a profession, we will continue to engage with, and where possible support, Government as it drives forward vital programs of work to adjust our building stock,” said the RIBA Chair.
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Darren Price, director of architecture firm ADAM, questioned whether Hunt’s ambitions were ambitious enough, given the government’s legal commitment to make the UK net zero by 2050. He also noted that buildings and construction contribute 40 per cent of all emissions on Earth. world level.
He said: “We are fully in favor of this but we are also asking if this is ambitious enough. Energy efficiency for a household or business is a good thing in terms of cost savings and climate change, but there is a much greater challenge in terms of responding to the climate emergency that requires our committed and larger response.” much.
Felicie Crickler, principal at Assael Architecture, echoed Alford’s comments. She said: “A decade of low levels of insulation installation rates means that retrofitting energy-efficient homes needs a boost and today’s promise of financing is a huge step in the right direction.
“However, how can we really delay this until 2025 to address the energy efficiency weakness in our housing stock?”
Currently, the UK has some of the worst homes in Europe for energy performance. Only 1.8 per cent of new homes in England meet the highest efficiency rating, Green area Found in a report earlier this year.
Only 10 percent of the interwar housing stock — homes built between 1919 and 1939 — has Energy performance rating Above the C band, a Report Published by RIBA in September said. The institute estimates that improving the energy performance of these homes alone would reduce the country’s carbon emissions by 4 percent as well as help the government achieve its net zero goal by 2050.