The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) is pushing for a national programme of building retrofits to address the massive surge in energy prices
BESA has acknowledged the government’s attempts to help households financially following Ofgem’s decision to lift the energy price cap by 54% from April but demands that more needs to be done. The Association says that the situation requires long term measures to tackle the issue head on: a national programme of building retrofits.
‘Renovation and refurbishment’
BESA’s head of technical Graeme Fox commented:
“Millions of people are now facing real hardship as a result of the soaring cost of gas and electricity, but we do not have a comprehensive plan for addressing a major contributory factor – the poor energy efficiency of our buildings.”
“The price of energy has never had a higher profile, but most of the talk about possible solutions either refers to short-term financial measures and adjustments to the tax regime or very expensive technical fixes like renewables and hydrogen. Yet, we can fix energy efficiency relatively quickly and cost-effectively through renovation and refurbishment,”
From April the average energy bill will rise by almost £700 for around 18 million households, Ofgem has announced. In response, the chancellor Rishi Sunak has made promises to help affected households. For example, he has promised support via council tax rebates and a discount scheme that will need to be paid back over five years. However, energy market analysts have already predicted further price rises next year and beyond.
Impact
“The government is trying to help by redistributing taxpayers’ money to delay the full impact, but unless we fundamentally tackle the energy performance of both residential and commercial buildings this will simply become a bigger and bigger problem in the years to come,”
“We are also in an artificial position because interest rates have been low for so long. The Bank of England has just nudged them up by another 0.25% and they are likely to rise again soon. This, along with higher inflation, will put further pressure on families and businesses who are currently relying on cheap credit to keep their heads above water,” added Fox.
A new report from the Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) Select Committee urges the government to invest more heavily in the decarbonisation of heating. This report has been warmly welcomed by BESA because many of these recommendations would also have a positive impact on long-term energy consumption in buildings and help to lower bills.
The BEIS Select Committee wants a replacement for the ill-fated Green Homes Grant which would be delivered by regional and local government to try and avoid the bureaucratic problems that undermined the last scheme. The committee has requested that this be accompanied by a national consumer awareness campaign explaining the importance of energy efficiency measures to make low carbon heating technologies, like heat pumps, achieve their full potential.
‘We must work together to develop a national low carbon heating training programme’
“Any new low carbon heating incentives would be launching into a much more receptive marketplace now because of the growing alarm over rising energy bills,”
“We must work together to develop a national low carbon heating training programme to ensure we have the skills to deliver solutions on a scale that can both help tackle climate change and give consumers protection from rising bills,” said Fox.
The report added that those living in the lowest income homes and homes that are most difficult to retrofit are most vulnerable to rising energy costs and therefore funding should be aimed at them. They also advised that the government bring forward the Future Homes Standard by two years to 2023, which would help to speed up energy saving improvements.
Finally, BESA has urged the government to consult with the industries directly involved in the decarbonisation of heat, such as building services, to fully understand the implications of its policy proposals not least on the need for investment in training and skills.
