With over 7m households lacking solid wall insulation, 6m lacking
cavity wall insulation and over 7m having inadequate loft insulation Neil
Marshall, CEO of the NIA is today calling on all party leaders to make energy
efficiency retrofit of the UK housing stock a national infrastructure priority
supported by additional funding from the Government Infrastructure budget and
to pledge to provide support to 6m low income households by 2025.
Recent reports have highlighted the scale of the problem and
demonstrated why a fresh approach and step change in funding for energy
efficiency and installation rates is needed:
- The rate of insulation installations has
collapsed under the current Energy Company Obligation and Green Deal and
is well behind the trajectory needed to achieve the UKs carbon saving targets
according to the Committee on Climate Change. At the current rates
of installation it will take:
o Around
150 years to insulate all of the remaining solid wall properties
o Over
30 years to insulate all of the remaining cavity wall properties
o And
around 60 years to insulate all of the remaining lofts to the correct level
- A recent study by leading think tank
Policy Exchange identified that over 1m of the 2.3m fuel poor households
in England have a family member at work and that Government funding to tackle
fuel poverty is currently around £700m-a-year below that needed.
- Research conducted by Cambridge
Econometrics and Verco for the Energy Bill Revolution identified that a
far more ambitious home energy efficiency investment programme would pay
for itself and significantly boost the UK economy. The report
revealed that the programme would:
o add
£13.9bn annually to the UK economy by 2030
o create
over 100,000 new jobs
o deliver
average energy savings of £372 and result in £4.95 billion in financial savingsper year for UK households by 2030
o cut
gas imports by 25%, boosting energy security
o
provide a £1.27 return in tax revenue for every
£1 invested by Government
Neil Marshall said: "the evidence is there for all to see - the current
policies, programmes and funding are inadequate and yet the benefits to
Government, the economy and hard pressed householders from a properly funded
energy efficiency programme are huge. Therefore today we are calling on
all political parties to go further, faster by committing to the following in
their election manifestos:
- To make energy efficiency retrofit of the
UK housing stock a UK infrastructure investment priority supported by
appropriate levels of funding and a robust delivery plan developed with
industry.
- As part of the programme insulate 2
million low income homes to EPC band C by 2020 and all 6 million low
income homes to band C by 2025."
