The Energy Bill Revolution is calling on the government to use infrastructure funds to make our homes super-energy efficient. A new report, undertaken by Camco and commissioned by Transform UK, The Co-operative Group and Consumer Focus, lays out the environmental, social and economic benefits of this campaign.
Key findings
- The Government’s new energy efficiency programmes, the Green Deal and ECO, will – without considerable additional resources – fall short of meeting both climate change and fuel poverty targets.
- There is a risk the number of households living in fuel poverty could rise by 40% from 1 in 4 to 1 in 3 households by 2016. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the figures are even higher.
- The Government plans to spend £120 billion on infrastructure this parliament, a small percentage of this over the next 20 years could provide every fuel poor household with a grant worth on average £6,500 to install energy efficiency measures. This would reduce their energy bills by an average of £310 a year – enough to bring 9 out of 10 households out of fuel poverty.
- The money could also be used to help other non-fuel poor households. They could, for example, receive funding over the next 15 years which is high enough to make up to a third of non-fuel poor homes as energy efficient as a modern home built today.
- Infrastructure funding could save up to 4 times as much carbon from homes as the Government’s new energy efficiency schemes alone, helping ensure the UK meets its carbon budgets.
- Infrastructure funding could create up to 108,000 more jobs – up to four times as many as through the Government’s Green Deal and ECO energy efficiency schemes alone.
- Infrastructure funding to make homes super-energy efficient could bring 9 out of 10 homes out of fuel poverty, reduce carbon emissions and create thousands more jobs – exactly what we need to support the UK’s economic recovery.
To find out more about the environmental, social and economic benefits, download the Report Executive Summary here.
Specialists can download the full technical report here.