UK faces funding gap on greener homes, charity warns

London

BRITISH households are facing a multibillion-pound funding gap to fix poorly-heated properties, which could imperil government goals on carbon reduction, according to a report published on Tuesday (Nov 30) by the National Energy Action (NEA) charity.

With about 40 per cent of UK emissions coming from the built environment, the least wealthy households are struggling to ditch high-carbon fuels such as coal and improve insulation, according to the charity, which campaigns on fuel poverty.

"While the strategies to meet net zero across the UK set an ambition to ensure that affordability is central, much more must be done to achieve this," said Matt Copeland, head of policy and public affairs at NEA.

The report comes after a spike in fuel prices caused 21 British energy providers to collapse, piling financial pressure millions of households.

Meanwhile, the Insulate Britain campaign group has spent months blocking busy roads in an attempt to force the government to boost support for energy-efficient buildings. One of its protesters was moved to hospital on Monday after a 13-day hunger strike in prison.

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A YouGov poll conducted on behalf of the NEA showed 80 per cent supported funding retrofits on low-income housing, while 66 per cent of respondents said the UK should reduce its emissions to net zero without increasing costs for the poorest households, even if this meant additional help from the government.

"There is huge potential to transform the lives of vulnerable people, people on low incomes, people with chaotic and challenging lives, but this needs to be targeted, inclusive, proactive and fair," said Frazer Scott, director of Energy Action Scotland (EAS) and co-author of the report.

Boris Johnson's Conservative government has committed to upgrading "as many fuel-poor homes in England as reasonably practicable" to a higher efficiency standard known as EPC Band C by 2030. Less than half the applicable homes in England met this standard by 2019, according to the NEA.

The Green Homes Grant programme, which offered as much as £10,000 (S$18,224) pounds to subsidise insulation and low-carbon heating, was scrapped in April, 6 months after its launch. Housing authorities have estimated that many homes will need work costing several times this maximum to reach the recommended standard.

The NEA said upfront grants for decarbonising poorer homes, costing an additional £2.7 billion by 2025, would overcome the barriers to making Britain's housing stock more green. BLOOMBERG