'More action needed' to cut carbon emissions from existing homes » Housing » 24dash.com

The Government is failing to take sufficient action on cutting emissions from existing homes, a committee of MPs warned today.

An "understandable" desire to make new homes environmentally friendly has meant ministers have given "insufficient priority" to making already-built houses as green as possible, the MPs said.

A report by the Communities and Local Government Committee urged the Government to do much more to help householders radically cut carbon emissions and tackle climate change.

Measures ranging from a swift national roll-out of "smart meters" to help homeowners monitor and cut their energy use to stamp duty rebates for people who make their homes more efficient within a year of moving in are needed, the MPs said.

Some 23 to 25 million homes already built are still likely to be inhabited by mid-century, many of which were built before 1919 and are the most inefficient, the Existing Housing and Climate Change report said.

With more than a quarter of total greenhouse gases coming from housing, long-term targets to reduce emissions by at least 60% by 2050 will not be met unless our older homes are made much more green, the report said.

And the UK is falling behind other countries such as Germany where solar panels are around half the price they are in Britain and insulation and external wall cladding is much cheaper.

The committee's chairwoman, Dr Phyllis Starkey, said: "The Government's understandable desire to build improvements into future housing has led it to give insufficient priority to action on the vast bulk of the housing stock.

"It clearly needs to engage as fully with reducing carbon emissions from the 25 million homes we already have as it has with cutting those from new development.

"We need a much clearer focus on what must be done to bring existing housing up to required energy efficiency standards."

And she warned: "The point will come when all the 'low hanging fruit' has been picked, by which I mean cavity walls filled, windows draft-proofed and boilers lagged.

"We need the Government to go further and do much more to help householders radically cut carbon emissions from their homes, whether they were built in 2007 or 1707."

The report is published as the Government launches a series of measures to make homes more environmentally friendly, including its Green Homes Service, a one-stop shop to help householders cut fuel bills and emissions.

This week the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (Cert) obligation also comes into force, requiring energy suppliers to improve efficiency for vulnerable customers.

The committee welcomed the new Green Homes Service, but said the single biggest difficulty in improving energy efficiency across the overall housing sector was engaging millions of individual householders.

It urged the Government to consult local authorities on how large-scale area-wide programmes for basic home improvements such as insulation could be rolled out, and take steps to ensure households suffering from fuel poverty can be targeted.

The committee recommended a number of other measures, including a code for existing homes - similar to the Code for Sustainable Homes being introduced for new build - with minimum performance standards.

It called for Energy Performance Certificates, contained in Home Information Packs, to be made more widely available and for the removal of a VAT anomaly which makes it cheaper to demolish a building than renovate it to higher environmental standards.

And it said the Government should investigate the potential of feed-in tariffs, which would guarantee a long-term price for people who installed microgeneration technology and sold power back to the grid.

The report said: "The bulk of our housing, however old and leaky it may be, is capable of the kind of improvement that will deliver the necessary reduction in carbon emissions without destroying the visual character that makes it uniquely ours.

"The trick will be to find imaginative solutions as new markets and skills develop to bring new ideas and technologies to homes in which the 'low-hanging fruit' of draught exclusion and insulation has already been plucked."

Ahead of the launch by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn of measures to make housing more green, the Local Government Association called for a national home insulation programme to cut emissions and fuel bills.

The LGA said the nationwide 10-year scheme, which it would want to see run through local authorities and prioritising vulnerable households, would cost just over £5 billion.

The association said energy suppliers should contribute £500 million a year to the scheme, matching the amount of money consumers pay on their bills for the energy companies to meet their Cert obligations.

Unlike that funding, the cost of the insulation programme should not be passed on to consumers and should come from the suppliers' profits, the LGA urged.

Paul Bettison, chairman of the LGA's environment board, said: "Utilities companies are making eye-watering profits at the expense of hard-working families.

"If these firms made the same contribution as householders currently make on their bills, we could insulate 10 million homes, take £2 billion off energy bills and lift 500,000 people out of fuel poverty."

He said the cut in fuel bills would be the equivalent of knocking a penny off standard income tax rates.

"Meeting this country's ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions and help households manage rising fuel costs will require ambitious policies.

"The Government should consider these proposals which would be good news for the environment, tackle fuel poverty and reduce bills for ordinary people."

Housing Minister Caroline Flint said: "The Government is absolutely committed to reducing carbon emissions from both existing and new buildings and huge progress has already been made.

"The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target will remove the equivalent of 1.45 million cars from the road through promoting simple energy efficient measures in the home, and a green homes programme being launched today will provide a one-stop shop to support home owners wanting to make environmental improvements.

"We have the strictest timetable for reducing carbon emissions in new build homes anywhere in the world and by making the right changes to existing homes we can make a massive contribution to reducing carbon emissions."