Fresh energy efficiency policies promised for upcoming Budget

The government has revealed that next month’s Budget will contain fresh policies to improve the energy efficiency of homes.

Recently appointed energy minister Lord Callanan announced in the House of Lords yesterday that the government will be unveiling new measures to tackle residential greenhouse gas emissions, which rose by four per cent in 2018, the last full year for which figures are available.

Discussing the topic of housing insulation, Lord Callanan said: “We will be announcing further policies in this field in the budget and in the forthcoming energy white paper. There will be a number of upcoming announcements in this field.”

While he could not “predict” what these steps will include, the peer said they will seek to address the issue of higher building energy efficiency standards.

Lord Callanan was responding to a question from ex-housing minister Lord Foster, who has sponsored a private members bill to enshrine in law the government’s target that all homes should be brought up to Energy Performance Certificate band C by 2035.

Lord Foster told the Lords that at a Parliamentary reception on Monday evening, Lord Callanan’s fellow energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng had reassured the Sustainable Energy Association (SEA) that the government does not support his bill because it has its own plans to legislate on the issue.

Utility Week was told that Kwarteng said the government does not “tend not to support private members’ bills when we are going to legislate for the same things.”

At the reception, which was held by the SEA, Lord Foster warned in a speech that failure by the government to support his bill will lead to an “enormous” loss of confidence and investment in the energy efficiency sector.”

The Liberal Democrat peer, who was responsible for building regulations when a minister during the coalition government, said: “So far, the government is not prepared to support this very simple bill that puts into legislation the very things that the government says they are determined to do.

“If they don’t accept it, it will lead to enormous loss of confidence and subsequent loss of investment.”

While acknowledging ministers’ commitment to improved energy efficiency, he said the targets must be enshrined in legislation because “governments don’t always live up to their promises”.

In his speech at the same reception, Kwarteng said domestic heating is the “next big challenge” on the government’s decarbonisation agenda.

He said: “Joined up policy in this area is absolutely essential. While have made considerable progress in terms of decarbonising power generally, there is a considerable journey to make in the space of heating our buildings.

“There is no way we can get to net zero carbon emissions without what can only be described as a revolution in the way we heat our homes and energy efficiency.”

The Conservative party pledged in its manifesto for last year’s general election to pump £9.2 billion of investment into improving the energy efficiency of homes, schools and hospitals.