Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK Green Building Council highlights why infrastructure investments for energy efficiency should be a priority for the government…
Blind spot. These are the words I used to describe government’s thinking on the energy efficiency of UK homes and the various infrastructure projects it considers worthy of investment. When the National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) was published last December, it included a list of the Coalition’s Top 40 priority infrastructure investments… energy efficiency didn’t make the grade.
So what did make the list? It was a case of the usual suspects. Transport in the form of roads, railways and airports; flood defences; communications; water – areas that most of us would agree fit the classic definition of infrastructure – all got a look in. Energy generation also featured heavily, occupying 4 of the Top 40 places.
While all these areas rightly fit the bill for infrastructure investment, domestic energy efficiency should not have been ignored. Why?
Firstly there’s the economic rationale, from both a consumer and wider economic perspective. Not only could a national programme of home energy efficiency deliver savings of up to £300 on the average annual household energy bill, it could also contribute to economic growth by creating thousands of jobs across the UK.
Then there’s the environmental benefit. The scale of the retrofit challenge means we must retrofit one home every minute between now and 2050 if we are to meet our legally binding climate change targets of reducing emissions by 80% mid-way through the century. And our current efforts are falling short of this. Energy efficiency offers by far the most cost effective way of meeting our carbon targets and combating climate change.
Government’s own analysis suggests that investment in energy efficiency could save the UK the equivalent of 22 power stations of energy by 2020 and around 9% of estimated total demand by 2030.
Cold homes are estimated to cost the NHS £1.36bn each year. Improving the energy efficiency of the coldest homes can also lift the vast majority of households out of fuel poverty and improve the health of residents.
Together with a coalition of 20 other partner organisations such as the Aldersgate Group, Green Alliance and WWF, we have campaigned for “a housing stock fit for the future”. Others have joined this growing chorus such as Kingfisher’s outgoing CEO Sir Ian Cheshire and the CBI from the business community, Labour’s shadow energy team and even senior Government ministers such as Energy Secretary Ed Davey.
Overall, there’s a compelling case for elevating the status of energy efficiency to an infrastructure priority and allocating significant capital investment on it. It was therefore frustrating that government effectively ignored the “significant opportunity” for greater energy efficiency which it identified within the NIP itself. A future government must think more broadly about what it considers infrastructure if it is to truly capitalise on the benefits energy efficiency can offer.
