Housing: Insulation

(asked on 18th April 2019) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of public funding required to achieve the National Infrastructure Commission’s recommendation of increasing the rate of insulation measures installed in UK homes to 21,000 a week by 2020.


Answered by
Robert Jenrick Portrait
Robert Jenrick
This question was answered on 30th April 2019

The National Infrastructure Commission made over 50 recommendations to the government, in their National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA) published in July 2018. As announced at Budget 2018, the government will respond in full to the NIA through a National Infrastructure Strategy, including on the installation rate of energy efficiency measures in the building stock.

The government has already set out an ambitious aspiration on energy efficiency in the Clean Growth Strategy, for as many homes as possible to reach EPC Band C by 2035 where practical, cost-effective and affordable; and the Prime Minister has announced an Industrial Strategy mission to at least halve the energy use of new buildings by 2030. The government has a growing programme of ambitious policies to drive forward progress towards this aspiration, including extending the Energy Company Obligation from 2022 to 2028 to support more than £3bn of investment to upgrade the energy efficiency of around a million more homes, tightening the regulations on minimum energy efficiency standards in private rented homes, and announcing the introduction of a Future Homes Standard to ensure that all new homes are built with world-leading levels of energy efficiency and low-carbon heating. The government is further considering the detail of these policies, in order to unlock the necessary energy efficiency improvements for homes and businesses during the 2020s.

At Spring Statement, the Chancellor confirmed that the National Infrastructure Strategy will be published later in 2019, alongside the Spending Review and Autumn Budget. The Spending Review will determine the government’s spending priorities going forward, assessing spending in the round against government priorities and a broad evidence base. As part of that evidence base, HM Treasury guidance in the Green Book sets out the methodology by which Departments should undertake cost-benefit analysis for all proposals that concern public spending and changes to regulations, including for energy efficiency and broader infrastructure requirements. These are scrutinised by Treasury spending teams to support decision making and ensure value for money. Impact Assessments associated with particular policy proposals are published online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications.

Reticulating Splines