LABM‘s Editor Claire Clutten discusses the Prime Minister’s climate policy climbdown in September and how it could stymie climate innovation at a time when we need greater certainty, to encourage the investment required to build capacity and to deliver the energy efficiency improvements necessary to achieve net zero.
The same week in September that the United Nations convened its Climate Ambition Summit in New York, concerns were rife in the UK that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak intended to rollback on a number of the country’s climate policies. Ahead of the PM’s announcement on Wednesday 19th September, Dr Ashok Sinha, CEO at climate solutions charity Ashden said: “If the PM wanted to do maximum harm to the UK economy, then this would be the way to do it. The green transition is not only necessary to prevent catastrophic environmental impacts, but it’s the only way to secure our country’s future prosperity.”
The announcement came and for many those fears were realised, with the PM extending the deadlines for the transition to heat pumps and electric vehicles, and scrapping the obligation for landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of homes. The Energy Efficiency Taskforce has been disbanded, and at the time of writing, Biodiversity Net Gain rules delayed.
With the UK housing stock amongst the worst insulated in Europe, now is not the time to row back on domestic energy efficiency improvement policies, as it’s the tenants who will ultimately bear the brunt of this through poorer living conditions and higher fuel costs. This issue is particularly acute in the private sector, where renters are already struggling with rent increases.
Allan Wilen, Glenigan‘s Economics Director concurs, saying: “The decision to release
landlords from the obligation to upgrade homes to an adequate level of energy efficiency will continue to expose many renters to higher heating costs and damp and mouldy conditions alongside rapidly rising rents.
“Improving the energy efficiency of the nation’s homes would help to cut household fuel bills as well as deliver environmental improvements, improving the UK’s energy security and creating skilled jobs in the UK construction industry.”
Given the built environment accounts for a third of the country’s total emissions, “it makes sense,” says Bekir Andrews, Interim Director of ESG at the Wates Group, “to prioritise the decarbonisation of commercial and public owned buildings, through retrofit, improved Building Regulations and skills development”. Doing so would not only reduce the country’s carbon footprint, it would also open up numerous job opportunities and allow for the expansion of a skilled retrofit workforce, helping to drive the UK economy.
Bekir says: “To achieve this transformation, businesses like us need clarity and certainty of policy going forward to ensure we can make the required investment to help the UK deliver on our international commitments and achieve net zero by 2050.”
This highlights the real concerns shared by many that the PM’s announcements could stymie climate innovation and cause uncertainty, with the potential to deter future investment.
Some positive news did come in the form of an increase from £5,000 to £7,500 for boiler upgrade grants. The Prime Minister acknowledged that the cost of heat pumps is falling faster than expected, could not the increase in the boiler upgrade grants be put towards heat pump installations?
Allan Wilen believes “the decision to delay the transition away from gas boilers towards heat pumps will again cause disruption and uncertainty for manufacturers and installers, deterring the necessary investment required to deliver the capacity and efficiency improvements needed to upgrade the UK housing stock and deliver the Government’s Net Zero target.”
With all this uncertainty, it’s really positive to see housing associations like Bromford securing a £100m private placement with UK and US investors to fund its ambitious housebuilding and sustainability programme, and partnerships like the one between The Retrofit Academy and the Greater South East NetZero Hub being established to accelerate the development of green skills, and improve social housing infrastructure in the South East. If the Government is lacking in net zero ambition, it’s good to see the sector is not.
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