19 October 2021
UPDATE: HEAT & Buildings Strategy released
Last night the UK Government annouced its Heat & Buildings Strategy 1. A disappointing document which commits only one-third of the new funding requested in the Great Homes Upgrade (below) and widely criticised as as a missed opportunity.
Initial reactions
“It’s not going to close the gap to meet the UK’s targets, and that does not set a good example to the rest of the world.”
Greenpeace UK
“when you look at the figures, this sum is still nowhere near enough to transform the heating of 29 million properties across the UK. Government funding must increase exponentially if we are to achieve the government’s target of 600,000 total heat pump installations a year by 2028 – of which half will be retrofit.”
Ian Rippin, MCS CEO (UK industry standards body)
“We need joined-up action on climate change and a comprehensive, well-funded home insulation scheme – not token gestures.”
Caroline Lucas MP
Budget increases in the year ahead of COP26
‘The Great Homes Upgrade‘ campaign is based around a fully costed plan to revolutionise Britains’s ageing housing stock, creating thousands of jobs in the process.
If adopted the programme would:
- Retrofit 7 million homes by 2025
- Generate at least 190,000 direct jobs across the economy
- Ensure no child has to grow up in a damp and unhealthy home
As we’ll show below the full cost of such invesment is less than half the cost of the latest UK military spending increase.
The case for public investment
UK housing stock is some of the worst performing in Europe and the lack of clear policy direction from Government is smothering progress. UK domestic heating is responsible for 14% of UK carbon emissions2 and without timely and significant state intervention in domestic heat and building efficiency3, the UK cannot hope to meet it’s carbon targets4.
Successive public policy disasters from the Green Deal to this year’s Green Homes Grant Scheme have failed to provide the necessary scale of investment and vision. But it doesn’t have to be this way – the Great Homes Upgrade report demonstrates how a clear policy framework and public investment would unlock significant private investment, creating homes fit for the future.
But can we afford it?
Below we compare how current investment in housing decarbonisation stacks against military spending, then the full costs of the implementing the Green Homes Upgrade vs. military spending increases so far in this parliament.
Current UK budgets over this parliament
NOTES: The £6.1bn figure includes all current government programmes for public and private housing decarbonisation5. £188.2bn is the UK MoD Budget for the period6. MoD figures are 15-20% lower per annum than the figures the UK reports to NATO as ‘defence expenditure’7.
Why now is the time to act
- The Government’s ‘Heat and Buildings Strategy‘ has been delayed many times but could be published any day.
- 27 October will see both the Autumn budget and the Spending Review (SR21) which will set out spending priorities for the current parliament.
- 31 October-12November – the UK hosting of COP26 in Glasgow will turn much needed focus on Government action on the climate crisis.
Supporting facts
- https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plan-to-drive-down-the-cost-of-clean-heat
- ‘UK housing: Fit for the future?’, Commitee on Climate Change, 2019 https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/uk-housing-fit-for-the-future/
- https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publications/decarbonising-heating
- ‘The pathway to net
zero heating in the UK’ UKERC policy brief (2020) https://d2e1qxpsswcpgz.cloudfront.net/uploads/2020/09/The_pathway_to_net_zero_heating_UKERC_briefing.pdf - ‘Great Homes Upgrade – an investment and policy package to futureproof UK housing’ September 2021, P6 https://neweconomics.org/uploads/files/Great-Home-Upgrade-Policy-Briefing_September-2021_final.pdf
- ‘Defence in a Competitive Age’, MoD CP 411, 2021 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974661/CP411_-Defence_Command_Plan.pdf
- https://www.sipri.org/commentary/topical-backgrounder/2021/reassessing-sipris-military-expenditure-estimate-united-kingdom
- ‘Fuel Poverty’, Research Briefing, July 2021 https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8730/CBP-8730.pdf
- https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/uk-worst-heat-pump-record-in-europe/
