Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 2ND - 8TH AUGUST 2019 | 13 Utility of the Future: climate change Coming up in 'climate change' in future issues of Utility Week: • Should we be going faster to net zero? • Can nuclear fusion get us there? • More people, enough water? looking at things like, for example, offering zero VAT on a refurbish- ment project that includes energy performance improvement? It would stimulate additional activ- ity in the construction industry and should be relatively low cost. "People invest a lot of money in their homes, so why can't we get energy improvement into that as well? Places like south Germany, for example, have tax incentives for owners linked to energy efficiency improvements. Quite a few Euro- pean countries do that." Sara Vaughan, political and regulatory affairs director at Eon UK, welcomes the moves the government is making around the green homes finance innovation fund and the whole-house retrofit fund. But she too underlines the need for incentives. "In the able-to-pay area there really isn't anything. I've been in the market a long time, I've written paper a‹er paper talking about stamp duty rebates and council tax holidays, I've also talked about reduced rate loans to invest in energy efficiency and I'm hoping that we're starting to move in that direction. "There is a gap in the market, which should be filled in the first instance through incentives, but then over time, if incentives aren't delivering, through regulation." Vaughan cites, for instance, making it mandatory to upgrade a property when it's sold. She would also like to see ECO boosted through the targeting of winter fuel pay- ments, and all suppliers required to take part in ECO rather than just those with over 150,000 customers. That would swell the pot by £100 million. She wants the limit raised in terms of the amount of their ECO obligation energy retailers can spend with local author- ities, currently capped at 25 per cent. There is widespread frustration with the current state of play. ADE's Wade says: "We've been waiting a long time for an action plan for able-to-pay households. There's not very much in the green finance strategy. So we're still waiting." She sums up the feeling of many in the sector and MPs on the BEIS select committee. "It's fantastic that we've got all this ambition around net zero, but we need to get on and do it," she says. Over to you, Boris. ENERGY EFFICIENCY INSTALLATIONS 1.40 "Nothing has come along to replace the Green Deal. It came to a grinding halt five years ago." DAVID JOFFE, COMMITTEE ON CLIMATE CHANGE Key stats • The current rate of renovation in the UK needs to increase seven-fold. In England the rate needs to increase by a factor of 9, compared to a factor of 2.5 in Scotland. • The target for all homes to reach EPC band C requires over 1 million insulation installations a year in England, but in 2018 only around 110,000 insulation measures were installed with ECO support, translating into an average of 2,100 insulation measures a week. • In Scotland and Wales, centrally funded schemes are delivered alongside ECO, so in 2017 average annual per capita investment was: £35 in Scotland; £23 in Northern Ireland; £17 in Wales; and £8 in England. • ECO spend in 2017 was halved to £640 million a year (in 2017 prices) and installations have dropped by 95 per cent since 2012 • The total cost of meeting the EPC band C target by 2035 is estimated to be between £35 billion and £65 billion THE NUMBER OF HOMES ACROSS THE UK IMPROVED WITH SIGNIFICANT ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEASURES WITH GOVERNMENT PROGRAMME SUPPORT COMPARED TO THE RATE REQUIRED TO MEET THE 2035 EPC C TARGET Source: BEIS select committee THE RATE OF HOMES SUPPORTED WITH SIGNIFICANT ENERGY EFFICIENCY RENOVATIONS IN 2017/18 ACROSS THE NATIONS OF THE UK, DISPLAYED AS A SHARE OF THE AVERAGE ANNUAL RATE NEEDED TO 2035. IT SHOWS A STEEP DECLINE IN RENOVATION RATES OVER RECENT YEARS Source: BEIS select committee WEEKLY INSULATION INSTALLATIONS REQUIRED IN ENGLAND TO 2035 COMPARED TO THE CURRENT RATE OF WEEKLY DEPLOYMENT Source: BEIS select committee Total Floor insulation Solid wall insulation Loft insulation Cavity wall insulation 2013/14 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20 0.00 5,000 Current weekly delivery Weekly installations needed to 2035 England 11% 18% 23% 40% 14% 10,000 15,000 20,000 Wales Northern Ireland Scotland UK 2014/15 Northern Ireland 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 Average rate of renovation needed a year millions of households Wales Scotland England UTILITY WEEK CONGRESS 2019 8-9 October 2019 | Birmingham Eon UK chief executive Michael Lewis is speaking about 'Creating sustainable utilities of the future' at Utility Week's two-day Congress in October. For further information or to book your ticket, visit: uw-event.co.uk/congress

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