Environmental Audit Committee call for evidence: The Seventh Carbon Budget

• Public attitudes and behaviour change will be key to achieving the statutory targets set out the Seventh Carbon Budget. If the public is unwilling or unable to make changes aligned with the net zero transition, it will be increasingly difficult to accelerate the roll out of low carbon technologies and demand reduction measures needed to reduce our emissions.  

• A national public awareness raising campaign is needed to paint a positive vision of action needed to meet the Seventh Carbon Budget, outlining what impact this will have from their day to day lives. This should be taken forward within the upcoming net zero public participation plan.  

• A national retrofit advice service for England should be set up as a key piece of infrastructure to deliver the Warm Homes Plan. This will simplify the consumer journey and give households the confidence they need to install energy efficiency measures and low carbon technologies in their homes.  

• It will be important to overcome the affordability barrier to installing low carbon technologies and there should be a financial offering for all to accelerate rates of home retrofit.  

We believe that the CCC’s headline assumptions are adequate, but there are several areas which will require significant and urgent policy support if the Seventh Carbon Budget it to remain deliverable. 

Residential buildings 

Public behaviour: Upgrading our housing stock, including installing low carbon technologies and energy efficiency measures, is largely dependent on public behaviour change. The Seventh Carbon Budget assumes that the number of households with a heat pump will increase to 52% by 2040 and 80% by 2050. Realising this level of deployment relies on a public willing and able to accept and install these technologies. This will not be possible without significant policy support as outlined in the section focused on behaviour change below.  

Workforce and supply chain: We would also note that it is critical that the workforce and supply chain is in place to ensure that increasing demand for home upgrades can be met. More than 400,000 builders and retrofit professionals are needed to retrofit the UK’s housing stock, but there is currently only half that number working in maintaining and upgrading our homes. This will also require a specialist workforce for specific building types, for example, Historic England estimate that an additional workforce of 86,500 will be needed to upgrade homes constructed prior to 1919.

Technology deployment: We would highlight that there needs to be consideration of how the UK Government meets both its emission reduction and fuel poverty goals and would stress the continued importance of energy efficiency measures.  

The CCC’s balanced pathway assumes that the switch to low carbon heating will account for 66% of emissions reductions from residential buildings by 2040 and energy efficiency measures are set to account for 10% of emissions reductions. The CCC also conducted further analysis which measured the impact of additional energy efficiency measures in fuel poor homes to meet the UK Government’s fuel poverty goals. This analysis assumed all non-fuel poor homes followed the balanced pathway, whilst those in fuel poverty received all suitable energy efficiency measures. This would require a significantly higher level of energy efficiency deployment than is set out in the balanced pathway. The CCC estimate that this would equate to the installation of 1.5 million solid wall insulations, 600,000 cavity wall insulations and 3.4 million floor insulations. By reducing energy demand, this would mean that emissions from residential buildings would be 20% lower than in the balanced pathway in 2040.  

Whilst the balanced pathway focuses on the need to accelerate the switch to low carbon heating, achieving our fuel poverty goals may require greater deployment of energy efficiency measures than currently accounted for in the pathway. This is because whilst low carbon heating provides a ‘quick win’ for decarbonisation by immediately reducing emissions from fossil fuel heating, it does not automatically bring down bills for all households, particularly as the price of electricity remains four times the price of gas. Energy efficiency delivers savings regardless of energy prices and supports decarbonisation by reducing energy demand, which is why it remains crucial to addressing fuel poverty. Recent research by the Resolution Foundation found that despite heat pumps being the most cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions, loft insulation is ten times more cost effective in reducing energy bills.  

Accelerating the roll out of energy efficiency measures also provides a much-needed buffer if the low carbon heating rollout is slower than anticipated under the balanced pathway and this should remain a key focus of the upcoming Warm Homes Plan. Energy efficiency also improves energy security and supports the decarbonisation of the electricity sector by reducing overall and peak electricity demand. For example, NESO’s clean power analysis assumes that energy efficiency improvements in homes are rolled out at around double the pace of the Warm Homes Plan to meet the 2030 clean power target. By reducing energy demand, energy efficiency also puts less strain on the grid, reducing the need for infrastructure upgrades and the associated costs. Citizens Advice have estimated that improving the energy efficiency of 13 million homes to EPC C by 2030 would reduce national and peak electricity demand by 8%.  

Overall, energy efficiency should remain central to our efforts to meet both decarbonisation and fuel poverty goals. 

Electricity sector 

Public behaviour: Delivering the balanced pathway requires the public to engage and change their behaviour in relation to demand flexibility. This is needed to secure our electricity supply and reduce peak demand as our power supply shifts increasingly towards intermittent renewables. For example, consumers and businesses using electricity flexibly could reduce peak electricity demand by up to 54% by 2050. Yet enabling this level of flexibility requires the public to be aware of and trust demand flexibility tools and services. Policy support will be needed to achieve this, as outlined in our section on behaviour change.  

Surface Transport 

Energy Saving Trust welcomes the path outlined in the Seventh Carbon Budget to decarbonise surface transport. We support the overall direction and recognise the significant progress already made. However, we believe there are opportunities to go further to guarantee the delivery of the Seventh Carbon Budget and ensure benefits are realised as early as possible.  

Pace of electrification: The proposed trajectory for electric vehicle (EV) adoption is encouraging, but it is reliant on public behaviour change. To maximise impact, we suggest exploring ways to accelerate uptake ahead of expected price parity of the upfront costs of EVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in 2026–2028, particularly for households and SMEs that may face affordability challenges.

This could be achieved through a concerted information campaign aimed at consumers and SMEs. Continued focus on charging infrastructure is also essential and addressing grid connection delays and regional disparities will help maintain momentum. Setting clear milestones for infrastructure delivery could provide confidence to consumers and industry. 

Modal shift and demand reduction: The outlined pathway for modal shift—4% by 2030 and 7% by 2035—is a positive step. However, this is again reliant on public behaviour change. We see potential to go further by supporting behavioural change and investing in public transport, active travel and shared mobility earlier in the transition. Clear interim targets and dedicated funding for local authorities would help embed sustainable travel options and deliver co-benefits, such as improved air quality and health outcomes. 

Role of Low-Carbon Fuels: We agree that electrification should remain the primary focus for surface transport, with hydrogen and biofuels reserved for niche applications. Providing clarity on these roles will help avoid uncertainty, support industry to plan and counter the false opportunism that hydrogen and biofuels are the long-term answer. 

Overall, the Seventh Carbon Budget’s goal of reducing surface transport emissions by 86% by 2040 is commendable. To ensure success, we encourage prioritising near term actions such as accelerating modal shift and infrastructure readiness so that progress is not concentrated in later years. Early delivery will reduce reliance on emerging technologies and provide greater certainty for stakeholders within the transport sector. 

We would highlight that there are critical interdependencies between electricity supply and demand side sectors, particularly in relation to residential buildings.  

Residential buildings 

The switch to low carbon heating systems will be a key driver of increased electricity demand. Whilst this has been factored into the balanced pathway, we would note that if the low carbon heating roll out is not aligned with the balanced pathway (either too fast or too slow), then this could impact the decarbonisation of the electricity sector. NESO’s Future Energy Scenarios illustrate the scale of uncertainty, with electricity demand for heat projected to range from 98TWh to 183TWh.

If deployment of low carbon heating outpaces the deployment of renewable energy generation needed to meet a significant increase in electricity consumption, then we will have to rely more heavily on fossil-fuelled generation to meet demand.

Additionally, a slower roll out of network upgrades could also impact the ability of households to switch to low carbon heating and other low carbon technologies if there is not sufficient capacity on the grid to support an increase in demand. This could create a scenario where households are locked into higher emitting heating systems due to insufficient grid capacity.   

There is also a clear interdependency between demand for residential cooling and electricity supply. The extent of electricity demand for residential cooling will be impacted by various factors, including the impact of climate change, which will drive an increase in the need for cooling.

The extent of electricity demand for cooling will also depend on how the UK Government and industry respond and the extent to which passive cooling measures, such as shading and ventilation, become widely used to reduce the need for air conditioning.

NESO’s Future Energy Scenarios highlight the potential scale of variation with the range of homes with air conditioning ranging from 10% in 2050 under their holistic transition scenario to 40% in their falling behind scenario, where progress on decarbonisation is not delivered at pace, which would have a significant impact on our overall and peak electricity demand.  

We would recommend that the immediate focus should be on accelerating the rollout of proven low carbon technologies in people’s homes, including EVs, heat pumps, solar panels and batteries. With the right policy support, these proven technologies can be scaled up in the short to medium term and deliver benefits for consumers through lower bills that will build public support for the transition overall. 

Focussing on proven solutions provides a high degree of certainty in terms of delivery and impact. These technologies are already commercially available, well understood and supported by existing supply chains. This makes them a no regrets option for meeting the UK’s climate targets.  

One of the key contingency measures that is needed is the roll out of energy efficiency measures, as discussed in our response to section 1. This is particularly relevant to decarbonising residential buildings. The CCC conducted additional analysis that found that to meet our fuel poverty goals, additional energy efficiency measures would need to be rolled out in addition to those modelled in the balanced pathway.

This would, however, reduce energy demand from residential buildings by 20% in 2040 in comparison to the balanced pathway, providing a buffer in the event of a slower transition to low carbon heat.  

By reducing overall and peak energy demand, energy efficiency can also provide leeway for the decarbonisation of the electricity sector. NESO’s Future Energy Scenarios estimate that energy efficiency of buildings and appliances could cut electricity demand by up to 127 TWh in 2050, equivalent to an 18% reduction in a scenario where energy efficiency improvements were not made.

This demonstrates the centrality of energy efficiency in making it easier to achieve the renewable generation we need and reducing the need for expensive grid upgrades, the costs of which are ultimately passed to the consumer.  

Residential buildings 

In relation to decarbonising homes, there is a risk that households who can afford to upgrade their homes will be able to access the benefits of low carbon technologies, while those who cannot are left behind.

There is therefore a need to ensure that the costs of upgrading our building stock are appropriately spread across income levels to ensure equality of outcomes – both in terms of access to lower energy bills and participation in the transition. Policies perceived to disproportionately benefit wealthier households or penalise those unable to switch to low carbon heating – due to cost, tenure or other barriers – are likely to erode public support, as highlighted by the Citizen’s Panel conducted as part of the Seventh Carbon Budget. 

As we argued in our recent report ‘Getting home retrofit right: what the UK needs from the Warm Homes Plan and beyond’, there needs to be financial support for all households to upgrade their homes. Those in fuel poverty should not be expected to pay towards the cost of upgrades.

There is also a critical gap in support that needs to be filled for low and middle-income households who are unable to afford the upfront costs of many retrofit measures but are ineligible for fuel poverty schemes. Offering tapered grants across incomes, as had been done in France, provides a solution to this.

The national retrofit scheme, MaPrimeRénov, provides grants across the income scale, reducing grant levels as income levels rise, which provides a degree of grant support for low and middle incomes whilst encouraging investment from those on higher incomes, stimulating overall market demand and supply chain growth.  

Households should also be able to combine grants with UK-Government backed low-cost loans to make retrofit measures affordable. We know the impact of accessible low-cost loans on accelerating uptake of low carbon technologies through our work delivering the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan on behalf of the Scottish Government which provides grants and unsecured zero interest loans to support households install a range of home upgrades.

Evaluation of the scheme shows that it has been highly influential in encouraging home upgrades. For example, in 2022-23, 91% of actions funded through the scheme, such as insulation and draught-proofing, were partly or fully attributed to the scheme and 56% would not have happened without it.  

Whilst higher income households should be expected to shoulder a greater proportion of the costs of upgrading their homes, there will still need to be policies in place to stimulate demand from this income group, as outlined in the section on behaviour change.  

Overall, the cost of inaction across all sectors of the economy is significant: the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has estimated that the UK could face an 8% reduction in GDP by the 2070s due to climate damage and result in the cost of government borrowing doubling.  

The net zero economy is, however, a major driver of growth, growing 10% in the past year and generating £83.1 billion in GVA according to the ECIU. The net zero economy also has a significant multiplier effect, with every £1 of value creating an additional £1.89 in the wider economy. This demonstrates the significant potential of the net zero economy to bring about positive economic impacts going forward. 

Residential buildings 

If we fail to switch to low carbon heating and reduce energy demand, the UK will remain reliant on volatile international fossil fuel markets and households will continue to be exposed to fluctuating energy prices.    

This would reduce energy security, given that we would have a greater reliance on imported fossil fuels. For example, according to the ECIU, households that predominantly use fossil fuels would rely on over 20MWh of imported energy in 2030, compared with only 3.4MWh for households with low carbon technologies, include heat pumps and EVs, and an EPC C rating, a drop of 80%. This is the case even if new licenses for oil and gas resulted in increased domestic production.  

Our inefficient housing stock is also one of the root causes of high energy bills in the UK. For example, homes in the least efficient buildings (EPC F) pay £570 more per year on a dual fuel bill compared to homes rated EPC C.

As such, failing to take action to improve the energy efficiency of the UK’s homes continues to lock us into wasting energy and undermines the UK Government’s ability to meet its fuel poverty targets: analysis by Public First has also found that at current retrofit delivery rates, it would take an estimated 72 years to meet the 2030 fuel poverty target.

On the other hand, improving the energy efficiency of our buildings would have positive economic impacts by lowering household bills as well as through the indirect benefits of upgrading our housing stock.

Citizens Advice estimated that upgrading 13 million inefficient homes to EPC C between now and 2030 would save £23.8 billion in consumer bill savings due to reduced energy demand. This would also create £2 billion in NHS savings by reducing the volume and severity of illness associated with damp and cold homes.

Reducing our reliance on foreign gas would decrease the UK’s exposure to gas price shocks, limiting the impacts on both households and the public purse. Analysis by E3G estimated that if the clean power target is achieved, a gas price shock in 2030 equivalent to the one experienced in 2022 would raise the typical annual household electricity bill by only £71 – less than 9% – compared to the threefold increase we saw in 2022 and resulted in the UK Government spending £44 billion to support households with their energy bills.23 

The increase in demand for home upgrades will have positive economic impacts through creating jobs in the workforce and supply chain. It is estimated that over 400,000 direct jobs and 500,000 indirect jobs could be supported by a nationally coordinated home retrofit strategy by 2030, rising to 1.2 million direct and 1.5 million indirect jobs in 2050.

Behaviour change is expected to play a significant role in meeting our decarbonisation goals, with 62% of the necessary emissions cuts required to reach net zero relying on changes in behaviour and 53% of this depending on consumer adoption of new technologies, such as heat pumps, EVs and solar panels.

The Behavioural Insights Team (BiT) have put forward a practical framework, the ‘4 As’, to engage people in net zero behaviour: awareness, acceptance, access and adoption. The UK Government will need to improve all 4As from a consumer angle to encourage behaviour change, which will require significant policy support.  

Residential buildings 

Decarbonising our homes will require significant changes to consumer behaviour, from getting consumers to switch to low carbon heating and install energy efficiency measures, to asking households to vary their energy usage to balance the grid. To meet the Seventh Carbon Budget, the proportion of UK households with a heat pump will need to rise from 2% today to 52% by 2040 before reaching 80% by 2050 and consumer-led flexibility will need to increase from 2.5GW to 10-12 GW by 2030 to support the clean power target.

Enabling behaviour change in relation to home retrofit will need to be central to the upcoming Warm Homes Plan if we are to be on track to meet the Seventh Carbon Budget. This should include taking forward the following policy recommendations:  

Launch a public awareness raising campaign: Public knowledge and awareness of energy efficiency measures and low carbon technologies remain low. According to DESNZ’s latest public attitudes tracker, whilst 86% of people are aware of the need to change the way we heat our homes, only 39% stated they know a lot or fair amount about this, showing a knowledge gap around what this means in practice for the public.

Recent research by Citizens Advice also found that while households are interested in retrofit, other household improvements, such as new kitchens, are viewed as a higher priority. As such, there is clearer policy support needed to raise the salience of retrofit with the public.  

The UK Government is planning to publish a net zero public participation plan this year. As noted in the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, this is set to provide information around climate action and will include campaigns to support the uptake of low carbon technologies. We are keen to see further details on how the participation plan will function in practice.

It will be important that any individual campaigns are not siloed and form part of a broader, coherent national awareness raising campaign and narrative around the public’s role in addressing climate change. Reaching those who are, or have become, disengaged with the net zero transition will also be critical if it is to have a wide impact on public behaviour.  

A national awareness raising campaign must go further than just increasing awareness of the changes people must make and aim to also increase acceptance of low carbon technologies.

As such, approaches should be based on robust research to understand what will resonate most with specific demographics. This should include financial savings, as well as other co-benefits such as health, warmth and property value.  

Any campaign should make use of all avenues to normalise retrofit in the public consciousness, including advertising in places most people will come across, such as bus stops, supermarkets, TV, radio and social media.

It’s also important that any national awareness raising campaign tells people where to go or what to do next to act on the information they’ve received from the campaign, such as signposting to advice services. 

Set up a national retrofit advice service in England: For households looking to upgrade their homes, the current process is complex and confusing. People are unsure where to find trusted information and advice on what energy efficiency measures and low carbon technologies will be suitable for their homes and they struggle to know if they are eligible for financial support.  

This is most prevalent in England, as advice services are already in place in Scotland, Wales and to some extent, Northern Ireland.

Although there are pockets of local advice in parts of England, overall provision is variable and there remains a postcode lottery for households. The lack of a trusted, single point of contact for retrofit advice makes it difficult for households to have confidence and procedural ‘know how’ to act. Our research shows that 49% of homeowners in England don’t know where to get independent, impartial advice on making improvements to their home and 36% aren’t confident in assessing where to start.

In relation to heat pumps specifically, research by the Social Market Foundation has found that 50% of people think there is too much conflicting information.

A complex and confusing customer journey, with a lack of impartial and tailored advice, acts as a barrier to increasing household confidence in installing measures in their own homes. It was positive to see recognition of the importance of trusted advice within the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan and plans for the UK Government to create a single-entry point for advice on energy efficiency and low carbon technologies, with more detail to come in the upcoming Warm Homes Plan.  

To ensure there is sufficient advice provision, we are calling for the UK Government to set up a national retrofit advice service in England as part of the Warm Homes Plan. This will improve access to energy efficiency, low carbon heating and other low carbon technologies for the home by simplifying the consumer journey.

Access to clear, impartial advice will also be essential to help consumers feel confident in engaging with using energy more flexibility and maximise the benefits of their low carbon technologies. Post-installation advice will also be critical to help individuals with the operation and maintenance of newly installed upgrades, helping to guarantee carbon emissions and energy bills savings are realised. 

A national retrofit advice service should support all households, regardless of property or tenure type, understand what steps they can take to reduce emissions and energy bills, including those in flats as well as heritage homes and homes in conservation areas. Such a service should be linked up with any public awareness raising campaign, so people can be seamlessly signposted to the next stage in the consumer journey once they are made aware of the importance and benefits of retrofit.   

We know from our experience delivering Home Energy Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, the impact of access to expert, impartial and tailored advice on accelerating home upgrades.

For example, the latest evaluation data from 2022/23 shows that since receiving advice, 42% of customers had installed at least one energy efficiency, low carbon heat or renewable energy improvement and 42% of customers were planning to install at least one improvement in the next 12 months. Air source heat pumps (81%) and solar PV (74%) were the most installed measures that were attributed to Home Energy Scotland advice during this evaluation period.  

The importance of local engagement: Not everyone will engage with the transition in the same way and there is a critical role to play for local level action to engage communities in retrofit. It was encouraging to see recognition in the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan that there is a potential role of organisations, such as schools and charities, in the upcoming net zero public participation plan.

An increasing number of combined and local authorities are also setting up retrofit one stop shops to support their residents upgrade their homes. From our experience delivering Home Energy Advice North East on behalf of the North East Combined Authority, we know the importance of a trusted end-to-end solution that is accessible to all residents.

A national retrofit advice service in England should work in partnership with and support such existing or future local advice services. This will ensure a simple customer journey for households and effective referral pathways into and out of each service delivering the best outcomes for people.  

Research has shown that the way households make decisions around retrofit can be influenced by interactions with neighbours, family, friends and their local community. There is therefore a clear role for trusted intermediaries, such as local charities, health care organisations and community-based groups, to support wider engagement with home retrofit.

A national retrofit advice service in England should partner with such trusted intermediaries, as is the case in Scotland and Wales. Building referral pathways to reach the most vulnerable or hard to reach through existing customer support networks will be key to ensuring they receive the right support.  

We have argued that community energy groups could be well-placed to fulfil the trusted intermediary role, as they have a strong understanding of the communities in which they operate, allowing them to tailor messaging to what will resonate most with people and build trust to overcome behavioural barriers to engagement.

The UK Government should encourage local and combined authorities delivering retrofit schemes to partner with community energy organisations to support home upgrades in their areas. To make this process as easy as possible for both parties, the UK Government should provide templates and guidance to support setting up formal partnerships. 

Improve consumer protection: There is a patchwork of consumer codes and schemes across Great Britain which, combined with a lack of trusted information and advice, can leave people unsure of where to turn if they have issues with installations or need post-installation support.

This risks denting consumer confidence and trust and could significantly impact consumer behaviour by making them reluctant to invest in retrofit if they are unsure of the quality of installations or if they will be able to access redress.  

As part of the Warm Homes Plan, the UK Government must ensure that the consumer protection landscape if improved and made as simple as possible for households. This should include access to a simple redress scheme so that if something goes wrong, it is quickly rectified. Access to impartial, expert advice can also help signpost people to the right place if things go wrong.  

Ensure there is a financial offering for all: Improving access to energy efficiency measures and low carbon technologies means addressing the affordability barrier that many households face. Recent research by Citizens Advice found that whilst 19 million UK homeowners are interested in undertaking retrofit measures in the next five years, 66% of them are concerned about the costs.

Cost-of-living pressures also impact the ability of households to invest in home upgrades, with 4 million homeowners having less than £100 left after covering essentials and a further 3.6 million having between £101 and £250 left. Policy support to ensure that there is a government-backed financial offer in place to support all households is therefore crucial to enabling behaviour change.  

Policy recommendation that should be taken forward include: 

• Ensure those in fuel poverty receive grants that cover the full cost of retrofit. Whilst there are existing fuel poverty schemes, such as the Energy Company Obligation, these have not been well targeted. Previous schemes have been short term in nature and the current Warm Homes: Local Grant, which provides grants through local authorities for households in fuel poverty, is only confirmed until 2028. The Warm Homes Plan should ensure there is a well-targeted, long-term scheme that provides fully funded measures for households in fuel poverty. The process to access a fully funded upgrade should be made as simple and straightforward as possible, with an impartial, expert advice service acting as a clear referral route, with lessons to be learned from Scotland’s national fuel poverty programme, Warmer Homes Scotland. 

• Offer tiered grants for a range of retrofit measures across the income scale to remove the cliff edge of support faced by households on low and middle incomes who do not qualify for fuel poverty schemes but are unable to fund retrofit measures themselves. Whilst there is support in place for heat pumps through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, households on low and middle incomes will still struggle to fund the remaining costs and there is currently no grant support for this group for energy efficiency measures or other low carbon technologies.  

• Offer UK Government backed low or zero interest loans, such as that available through the Scottish Government’s Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan. 

• Provide expert, tailored advice to households so that they know what financial support they are eligible for.  

• Consolidate all UK Government backed financial support under one brand to make funding easier to access and identify and build a recognisable brand over time, trusted by households.  

Reduce running costs for low carbon heating: Given that the price of electricity is 4 times higher than the cost of gas, the running costs for low carbon heating systems are not guaranteed to be lower than a fossil fuel heating system.

This will need to be addressed in the short term to incentivise more households to switch to low carbon heating. Recent analysis by E3G has found that, with policy changes, households could see their heating bill halve by switching from a gas boiler to a heat pump.

Crucially, action is needed to remove social and environmental policy costs from electricity bills. There are several ways to do this, such as moving policy costs into general taxation or implementing a targeted exemption for those using electric heating, but importantly households who are unable to switch from gas should not be penalised. We urge the UK Government to set out how it intends to remove policy costs from electricity bills as part of the upcoming Warm Homes Plan. 

The role of regulation: In some cases, there will need to be a role for regulation to act as a ‘stick’ to enable behaviour change, but this will need to be accompanied by sufficient policy support to make adhering to regulation achievable.

One example of this is in the private rented sector. We are supportive of the UK Government’s intention to bring in minimum energy efficiency standards for the private rented sector, but there needs to be sufficient support in place to enable landlords to make changes to their property and adhere to the new standard. This includes: 

• Raising awareness of any upcoming changes to regulations.  

• Providing access to tailored advice for landlords to enable them to understand how to meet the new standards. 

• Providing low-cost loans for landlords to enable them to install measures, such as the Scottish Government’s Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan scheme.  

Learning from international examples: The UK should look to examples of successful home upgrade schemes abroad to gain insights into how to incentivise public behaviour change.  

One such example is the French national retrofit scheme, France Rénov, which has streamlined the customer journey by consolidating the retrofit process under one single brand and provides tiered grants through MaPrimeRénov to ensure those on lower incomes have access to the support they need. There is also a website that acts as a single point of entry into the scheme, a financial aid simulator with personalised estimates of grant support, a directory of local installers and access to local advisors.  

The success of the French scheme is evident in the evaluation statistics. Only 12% of the population had not heard of it as of 2023, compared with over a quarter of people in the UK being unaware of any government scheme.

Since its launch, the French scheme has funded home upgrades in an estimated 2.4 million homes at a cost of EUR 13.2 billion, as well as stimulating investment in the broader retrofit market, with nearly 37 billion EUR in renovation activity. MaPrimeRénov has also been found to deliver energy savings far more efficiently than the UK’s Energy Company Obligation (ECO), achieving 1.59kWh/year per £ spent compared to only 1.04kWh/year per £ spent through ECO.

There are several ways the UK Government can engage the public and build support for action required under the Seventh Carbon Budget. This includes: 

Public awareness raising campaign: As discussed in our response to the Behaviour Change section, the UK Government should launch a public awareness raising campaign to engage the public in the net zero transition and outline what it will mean for people’s daily lives.

Recent research conducted by Climate Outreach highlights the importance of framing climate action in terms of the positive future it can create, which should be the aim of any public communications campaign, whether in relation to decarbonising homes, transport or our electricity supply. Research by Climate Barometer also found that a range of quick and compelling narratives worked well, including a focus on harm prevention as well as highlighting progress already made towards our climate goals and that net zero is achievable and effective.

Local engagement: As discussed in our response to the Behaviour Change section, there will need to be multiple routes for engagement with climate action. As such, any national communication campaign will need to work in tandem with local engagement initiatives, through local councils, charities, community and neighbourhood groups, which are able to translate national level frameworks into messaging that resonates with a local community.  

Expand community energy: There is clear potential for community owned energy projects to both increase the deployment of renewable energy sources, more directly engage the public and secure public buy-in for the net zero transition.

For example, a recent survey found that 62% of the public would support a community energy project in their local area, comparatively higher than the 40% who stated they would support a privately owned project. Research has also found greater acceptance of shared ownership projects, where a community owns a stake in a commercial project, compared with wholly privately owned projects. Community owned projects reinvest surplus revenue into local economies, which can provide significant additionality, for example, through funding or facilitating local retrofit projects. 

However, community energy isn’t widespread and new groups looking to establish projects face a complex and time-consuming development process. While there is some support available for community energy in England, including through the Great British Community Energy Fund which has provided vital funding for the sector, this does not provide the comprehensive, end-to-end advice support in place in Scotland and Wales. It was positive to see the commitment to establishing a specialist advisory service in the Statement of strategic priorities for Great British Energy.

We recommend that the Local Power Plan builds upon and learns from existing community energy support schemes, in particular the Scottish Government backed Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) and the Welsh Government Energy Service. Both services provide proven, replicable models for delivering in-depth advice to guide communities through project development and have successfully enabled over 100MW of renewable energy capacity.23

In England, the Local Power Plan should build on these established frameworks to deliver a national community energy support service which acts as a simple single point of contact for communities. This should support the development process of community owned renewable energy projects through access to technical experts and project management support.  

We think that there are lessons that can be learned from examples of public communications campaigns from abroad around explaining the reasons behind the changes needed to meet the Seventh Carbon Budget.  

For example, the Irish Reduce Your Use campaign, is particularly relevant due to the careful design of the messaging used. The campaign was delivered in the context of negative public sentiment around energy costs and the energy crisis. The campaign had to carefully balance empathy with people’s financial worries around energy costs with the need to raise awareness of ways to reduce energy both to alleviate the financial impacts of the energy crisis as well as secure the country’s energy security.

The campaign was careful to do this in a way that was sensitive to people’s concerns and highlighted that demand reduction measures should only be taken when it was safe to do so. Messaging was tested before being released widely and was tracked so it could be adjusted based on prevailing public attitudes. Whilst this campaign was undertaken in the specific context of the 2022 energy crisis, the cost-of-living remains a key concern for the British public.

As such, any national communications campaign on climate action to achieve our statutory targets would need to carefully balance people’s financial worries with raising awareness of measures they can take to reduce energy demand and carbon emissions. This would require robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks to ensure that messaging could be adjusted based on what’s resonating with the public at the time.