Government increases funds for energy efficiency home makeovers
Greenwise Staff
1st July 2009
In a move expected to give a further boost to providers of home energy efficiency makeovers, advice and audits, the Government has this week unveiled more detailed plans to increase investment in measures to improve the energy efficiency of UK homes.
The investment is being raised through the Government’s Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) scheme, which is funded by the energy companies and offers subsidised energy efficiency measures, such as loft and cavity wall insulation.
It is also being funded through a new Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) to be rolled out this autumn. CESP will help up to 100 community schemes provide energy makeovers to households in low-income areas.
Together, the Government claims the schemes will raise investment in home energy efficiency makeovers to £3.5 billion by 2013.
The Government indicated that it would be extending CERT and introducing CESP earlier this year, when it launched its Heat and Energy Saving Strategy – a blueprint to give seven million UK homes entire house refurbishments, including low carbon heat and power, by 2020 and for every householder to have access to improvement measures by 2030.
“Home energy efficiency has never been so important in achieving our long term goals on climate change and to making a real difference to householder’s energy bills. [This] announcement delivers a major part of the Prime Minister’s Home Energy Savings Programme that ensures people can save money and save energy, as well as reducing emissions,” said Minister of State in the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Joan Ruddock, this week.
A quarter of all UK carbon emissions are from homes and the Government says household carbon emissions need to reduce to almost zero in order for the UK to achieve its target of an 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050.