VAT relief for energy-efficient materials is a small victory, but improving home energy efficiency should be within everyone’s reach
In the weeks leading up to the Springs announcement, the New Economy Foundation (NEF) visited the prime minister Commit to a Great Homes upgrade, a set of measures to improve UK household energy efficiency. The cost of living scandal and energy crisis have shown how important it is to free our cold and leaky homes from filthy fossil fuels and keep them safe from the cold and damp.
Last week, the chancellor announced he would cut VAT to 0% on improving household energy efficiency. This is very good news, long overdue, and one of the measures we are calling for the launch of a national transformation plan.
But if we only change VAT, then mainly homeowners with higher incomes who can afford to pay will be able to upgrade their homes. The benefits of improving home energy efficiency should be available to everyone, especially those most at risk from fuel starvation.This The Great Homes Upgrade package will benefit council tenants, private renters and homeowners – which is why we’re asking the government for grants and loans to upgrade our cold, airy homes.
While this is a small victory on the road to big residential upgrades, we will have to redouble our efforts in the coming months to build general demand for an inclusive national renovation program.apart from action Parliament and the Ministry of Financenearly 100 people gathered to celebrate the makeover and delivered a letter to Rishi Sunak, and hundreds of activists have been writing to local MPs over the past two weeks asking them to support our demands.
The responses we’ve received from Conservative MPs so far suggest that the government will introduce temporary increases to energy efficiency standards in June 2022.New homes built to this standard are expected to reduce CO2 emissions by around 30% compared to the current standard. This is a somewhat misleading announcement as it is part of the existing government New Net Zero Regulations, rather than responding to the growing need for investment in national renovation programs. It’s also not cause for celebration that we are currently still building homes that need to be renovated in a few years time, and of course there are millions of existing buildings that need to be upgraded now.
Without further investment, we’ll be condemning Britons for winter after winter under the scourge of dirty fossil fuel prices and fuel poverty. However, we know what can be achieved through leadership and public investment in this area. Finland is a country of about 2.7 million households, but now about 1 million households have a heat pump.The amount of energy used for heating in Finnish households has fallen accordingly since 2000 about 15%. In Italy, now for families 110% subsidy Deliver energy-efficiency improvements to homes as part of post-pandemic recovery. Why can’t the UK have the same thing?
Clearly, the task now is to make the UK government understand that the piecemeal measures we heard in the Prime Minister’s spring statement will not cut it. For Great Homes Upgrade, this means continuing to expand our alliance and put pressure on decision makers who have the right to invest.If you want to be more involved, you can sign up here.
