Government spending on insulation risks being wasted (again)

  


By David Lennan, Chairman, National Warm Homes Council

The government has today committed to protecting the £13.2 billion funding for the Warm Homes Plan (WHP) in its spending review. This is welcomed since boosting rates of home insulation is the most effective way to make homes warmer, lower bills and reduce emissions for the long term. But how can the government ensure this money is not wasted on insulating homes without protecting the insulation from compression and degradation?

The chancellor was right to ring-fence the budget to improve the nation’s dilapidated housing stock. This decision follows recent Opinium poll of Labour voters and a report by the House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, both confirming the need for the government to deliver on key manifesto pledges. 

Indeed, any reduction or delay in funding for the Warm Homes Plan (WHP) would have hampered the government in meeting its legally binding 2050 net-zero target, an 81% reduction in carbon emissions by 2035 and its pledge to reduce household energy bills by £300 within this parliament. 

We know that supporting homeowners, landlords and housing associations to make the necessary energy efficiency upgrades will be pivotal to reducing energy use, future-proofing homes and tackling fuel poverty. For too long, cold, unhealthy homes have been making too many people across Britain sick.

In fact, new analysis from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) reveals that improving homes in the social sector to Energy Performance Certificate band ‘C’ alone would save the NHS over £85 million per year from 2030.

Today’s announcement will also be a welcome boost for jobs and the economy. Research by green thinktank E3G asserts that delivering on the WHP in full would enhance economic growth by 0.8% within five years.

Now that the government has committed to spending on home energy efficiency improvements, we need to see urgent steps taken to decarbonise homes. Insulation is rightly recognised as one of three “critical technologies” to do this. 

Yet, the House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee finds progress is “way off track” and has been for a long time. It is not surprising that the UK has amongst the least energy-efficient homes in Western Europe, from which 25% of properties’ heat escapes through an uninsulated roof. 

Worryingly, the government continues to risk wasting the £6.6bn it has pledged to insulate five million homes within the next five years should it not ensure that insulation is guarded against compression and degradation for many years to come.

This is because, as revealed by the Carbon Trust in the biggest ever survey of how people use their lofts, 80% of households use their lofts for storage, which compresses the insulation, reducing its thermal resistance properties by at least 50%. 

Importantly, compressed insulation does not recover and needs to be replaced, often soon after installation. Consequently, the millions of homes that were insulated under the last Labour government from 2008 to 2012 will need to be done again, rendering the previous public investment wasted.

Failing to protect the insulation installed in new builds and existing homes now will mean the government risks repeating this mistake and asking taxpayers to pay at least twice. 

Therefore, decisive action must be taken. The government could do this by updating building standards and regulations under the new Future Homes Standard to be published in the autumn, requiring insulation protection as standard in all new homes, which would prevent them from having to be expensively retrofitted. For existing homes, the government must prioritise in its WHP the rollout of loft insulation protection whenever loft insulation is fitted.

With tight spending restrictions being imposed across the government departments, now is the moment for the government to prioritise long-term solutions that are accessible and affordable for families across the UK. Protecting loft insulation is a scalable, low-cost and low-risk way to deliver long-term results for warmth, health, and energy efficiency throughout UK homes, as well as saving public money.  

www.nwhc.org.uk

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