Heat and Buildings Strategy to be Delayed
Disagreements inside government have potentially delayed plans for a summer release of the low carbon heat and buildings strategy.
It was anticipated that the strategy would be released as early as next week (before parliament breaks for summer), however, there has reportedly been a standoff over the cost of the plans with Whitehall. This has resulted in a potential delay to the strategy until at least September.
An official announcement has yet to be made, however, reports coming from a number of media outlets suggest that negotiations with Whitehall have stalled over how best to incentivise the public to move away from conventional gas boilers to low-carbon alternatives, with the Treasury concerned about the cost to subsidise these incentives.
Elmhurst’s Managing Director, Martyn Reed, has voiced his frustration, and hopes that this important policy document is released sooner rather than later:
“The Heat and Buildings Strategy must be released soon if we are ever to achieve our ‘net zero’ aspirations. Almost 20% of emissions come from buildings, and yet there remains a concerning lack of policy which covers how we can improve our existing building stock through mass energy efficiency retrofit and low carbon heating. With COP 26 due to be hosted in Glasgow in November, I would expect the government will want to act quickly following the parliamentary recess, in order to show the world that the UK is serious about its commitment to Net Zero”.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) also expressed similar concerns within its ‘Progress in reducing emissions’ report released just last month. The report to parliament stated that there has been little progress made when it comes to upgrading the UK’s building stock, and also criticises the Government for not matching its “bold statements of ambition” with the implementation of effective policy.
CCC Progress in Reducing Emissions, 2021 Report to Parliament: https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Progress-in-reducing-emissions-2021-Report-to-Parliament.pdf