Great Homes Upgrade

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Upgrading our old and leaky infrastructure can bring immense benefits to the UK’s public health and economy, at the same time as helping to tackle climate change. A long-term investment programme on energy efficiency and low-carbon heat can create thousands of jobs, while tackling fuel poverty and preventing thousands of premature deaths due to cold and damp homes.

Across the UK, nearly 19 million homes are in need of upgrading as they are below the energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of C, but householders do not have the necessary financial incentives and support to undertake large-scale upgrades of their homes. Schemes such as the green deal and the green homes grant, aimed at tackling the finance problem, failed to deliver as they incurred a very high administrative cost and hassle for consumers with the programmes ending prematurely. Regulation such as the minimum energy efficiency standard, introduced as a way to improve the private rented sector, has raised awareness of energy efficiency but has had little impact in cutting energy consumption, largely owing to a lack of enforcement.