According to news reports, the government’s much heralded Warm Homes Plan, originally set to be launched earlier this year but anticipated to be announced this week, has once again been postponed.
Mark Krull, Director for LCL Awards and Logic4training, has expressed his disappointment and urges the government to stop back-tracking on its commitment to net zero.
“I am disappointed to hear that the Warm Homes Plan has been delayed, a scheme that holds much promise to improve the efficiency of some of the poorest performing housing stock, reducing carbon footprints and slashing bills while creating comfortable healthy environments for building occupants. The Labour Government’s plans for decarbonisation began positively, yet here we are, a year in, faced with another dreaded ‘U-turn’, of which their predecessors were so fond.
“The economy’s on shaky ground, so denting the confidence of a buoyant sector seems like a miss step. We’ve seen it before when the renewables sector stalled after take-off following the boom and bust era of the RHI. While we are in a very different place now, with widespread take-up of heat pumps, and an incredibly healthy solar industry that’s standing on its own feet without the backing of government incentives, it doesn’t take much to upset the apple cart, leading to market retraction and dented consumer confidence.
“At the time of writing, the Future Homes Standard is just around the corner, forcing the hand of the new build sector from the end of next year. We cannot afford delays here either. Just 10 years ago scrapping the zero-carbon homes regulation led to the construction of around 1.5 million sub-standard properties, which now need retrofitting at a cost of approximately £20,000 each – £30bn in total. The Warm Homes Plan has a budget of £13.4bn and it is highly likely that many of these 10-year-old homes qualify. The math’s clearly doesn’t stack up. This situation could have been completely avoided had it not been for this particular ‘U-turn’ – one designed to line housebuilder’s pockets.
“Let’s hope this ‘postponement’ is temporary and when the roll-out of energy efficiency upgrades under the Warm Homes Plan begin, they are completed with a focus on quality rather than treated as a money-making scheme by unscrupulous trades people. Recent reports surrounding sub-standard insulation and the problems it has caused tens of thousands of homes under ECO4 and Great British Insulation Scheme offer yet another cautionary tale. Not only have we got to stop back-tracking, we’ve also got to stop cutting corners.
“Overall, using net zero and renewables as a political football has got to stop – it’s detrimental to the construction industry and UK-Plc, costing jobs and ruining businesses.”
