Greening the UK’s energy inefficient and leaky housing stock is one of the toughest challenges on the country’s road to net zero. It’s tough, but still achievable – and the key to success is the ability to simplify the task for consumers.
On the face of it, upgrading the nation’s 29 million residential homes certainly sounds complex. The cost has been estimated at £250 billion by the Climate Change Committee and requires a shopping list of changes including the mass replacement of traditional fossil-fuelled boilers, retrofitting double glazing, insulation, solar and heat pumps. According to the charity Nesta, for the UK to reach net zero emissions by 2050, 1.5 homes will need upgrading every minute.
Like many challenges, this is also an opportunity. Baringa estimates the decarbonising of UK homes will become a £12 billion per annum market by 2030. This offers an unprecedented prospect for a range of private sector firms, from energy retailers and hardware manufacturers, to mortgage providers and beyond.
But to realise this opportunity, providers need to make the decarbonisation journey seem simple for the consumer. Currently, someone looking to upgrade their home must conduct a great deal of research, navigating systems of government grants, differing suppliers and differing possible solutions. Once this is done a homeowner must then answer the question of whether and how these solutions will work within their existing (and unique) property. The result is a task so complex that unless consumers are motivated or time-rich, many will become deterred and stick with their old, inefficient technology.
This is where previous schemes have failed, such as the coalition government’s Green Deal. Though ambitious, the policy failed to create a simple customer journey. Instead, it continued to saddle homeowners with the hassle and costs associated with managing a complex, multi-step process, from finding installers to arranging surveys and finance.
To avoid this trap, we need a ‘one-stop shop’ type platform. Behind the scenes it would amalgamate existing data – such as readings from smart meters, EPC certificates, geospatial data and more – and it should join together the broad ecosystem of suppliers who operate in this space. A complex task – but it’s vital that the customer’s experience is a simple one. The key would be a to present customers with a straightforward interface explaining what their options are and how they might take the required next steps.
The toughest part of this challenge will be getting a disparate industry to work together, and to find the firm willing to co-ordinate and to create the one-stop shop itself. But given the potential size of the market, the task of simplifying decarbonisation for consumers could be a financially rewarding one.