News

UK commits £6bn for home and business energy efficiency

Around a million homes are set to receive a boost in energy efficiency, with targeted support for 200,000 low income households and an additional £1.5 billion allocated for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.

The UK Government is set to provide extensive support, backed by £6 billion, to enhance energy efficiency for approximately a million families and hundreds of businesses.

This initiative includes various options to reduce energy use and emissions, such as insulation for 500,000 homes and additional grants for heat pumps.

An extra £1.5 billion in funding will facilitate more installations of heat pumps for homes and businesses, contributing to the transition to cleaner heating systems.

In addition, new plans ensure that all new homes and buildings will be zero carbon ready from 2025, aligning with the Future Homes and Buildings Standards.

Currently under consultation, these standards aim to make new homes and buildings fit for the future, lowering bill costs and reducing carbon emissions by at least 75% for all new homes compared to 2013 standards.

To further improve existing homes, the government commits to spending £12.6 billion by 2028, including allocations for schemes such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, a new energy efficiency grant, a local authority retrofit scheme, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Green Heat Network Fund, the Heat Network Efficiency Scheme and the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund. .

Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said:  “Cutting energy bills is my top priority. Today’s funding will help those who are most in need and keep around a million more families warm during winter.

“Everyone deserves to live in a warm, energy efficient home. We have already made excellent progress with nearly 50% of properties in England now having an Energy Performance Certificate of C – up from just 14% in 2010.”