Ministers have been advised that bringing the older properties of the UK up to a more energy efficient standard should be a priority.
At present, the Government is consulting on mega-money deals for road and rail infrastructure, flood defences and energy sources.
Opposition parties and institutions have noted that energy efficiency should be taking the same priority.
Efficient
They argue that unless homes are sufficiently insulated, Britain will miss targets to end fuel poverty and slash carbon emissions
Think-tank Policy Exchange proposed the plan to make home energy efficiency a key part of the Government’s infrastructure. BBC News said it had found lots of support for this proposal, from parties including Labour, the Liberal Democrats, SNP and Plaid Cymru..
In the current moment, the Government has declined to comment, but its advisory body, the National Infrastructure Commission, said that it would consider whether to take the idea further.
Value
Policy Exchange said that improving home energy efficiency:
- creates jobs
- combats fuel poverty
- cuts air pollution
- reduces carbon emissions
- minimises fuel imports
- saves the need for new power stations
Richard Howard, of Policy Exchange, said, ‘it’s pretty much a no-brainer. Bringing people’s homes up to standard is incredibly good value for money. We don’t typically think of housing as infrastructure like we think of roads and railways-but we’ve got to change the way we approach this: housing is critical infrastructure.’[1]
Ministers advised to combat cold houses
Wrong assumptions
Professor Jim Watson, director of the UK Energy Research Centre, noted, ‘for too long, there has been an assumption that infrastructure includes energy supply and energy networks, whereas the type and quantity of energy we use (and might need in future) is heavily dependent on infrastructures that use energy such as buildings, vehicles and appliances.’[1]
Christopher Frei, General Secretary of the World Energy Council, also said, ‘this is such a no-brainer. It responds to energy efficiency, addressing fuel poverty, replacing new capacity requirement-and the financing is so much easier to do because the pay-back period is so short. But it needs the policies.’[1]
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35459447