MPs call for ‘war effort’ to ramp up energy efficiency upgrades to 1m a year

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has called for a national mobilisation to improve the energy efficiency of homes across the country. 

In a new report, the cross-party commons select committee called for at least one million energy efficiency installations a year by 2025, a massive increase on recent years with fewer than 100,000 upgrades being carried out in 2021. 

While it welcomed chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s recent announcement of an energy efficiency taskforce and further investment from 2025, it said those in the 13 million homes in England rated below EPC could not wait for three winters of delay and criticised the government for failing to accelerate energy efficiency installations in the warmer months of last year.  

The report said Hunt’s taskforce should be directed to estimate the levels and workforce skills needed for the ramp up and allocate a proportion of the Energy Profits Levy to help fund energy efficiency improvements.  

It said the committee recommends the government launches a national ‘war effort’ push on energy saving and efficiency.

Committee chair Philip Dunne: “To reduce the UK’s demand on fossil fuels, we must stop consuming more than we need.  

>>See more: Fuel poverty and the leakiest homes in Europe: how we can do more

>>See more: Key tips on delivering an effective retrofit programme

“We must fix our leaky housing stock, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and wastes our constituents’ hard earned cash: we must make homes warmer and retain heat for longer.”

Dunne said the government’s new energy efficiency taskforce, announced in the autumn statement, can lead to a “national mobilisation” of energy efficiency upgrades.

He said the committee would like to see this “achieve an initial target of a million homes a year and more than double this by the end of the decade.”

He said: ”To help fund this, the government should funnel some of the revenue from the new Energy Profits Levy to crack on with the task at the earliest opportunity.

Other measures advocated in the report included setting a clear date for ending new oil and gas licensing rounds and requiring developers to fit solar panels on new homes. 

Reacting to the report, Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment chief executive Sarah Mukherjee said it was “vital that we support the upskilling of people” in mobilising toward the green economy of the future. ”

Simon Allford, president of the The Royal Institute of British Architects, backed the report’s recommendations.

He said: ‘This report echoes our concerns that the government’s British Energy Security Strategy was a missed opportunity to reduce energy demand – which is vital to decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels.

‘To get to net zero, the government will need ambitious measures. The EAC’s call for a clearer fuel poverty target and the upgrading of homes’ energy efficiency should be a national priority - and is one we have long been calling for as a National Retrofit Strategy.