What your organisation needs to know about sustainable home improvements

Did you know that direct and indirect emissions from buildings account for around 16% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions? Emissions from buildings have reduced since 1990, but there’s still some way to go to reach net zero by 2050.

Heating and powering buildings currently accounts for 40% of the UK’s total energy usage. Reducing building energy demand through improved fabrics (insulation, double glazing, etc) is important, but this won’t be enough for homes to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Low carbon heating will be essential to meet the ambitions of the Future Homes Standard and Future Buildings Standard in both residential and business buildings.

• New builds – The UK Government’s ambition is to have new homes produce 31% fewer carbon emissions from 2025 onwards, compared to current standards as it is significantly cheaper and easier to install energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating systems during home constructions than retrofitting them afterwards.
• Existing buildings – As many of the non-domestic buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built, refurbishments will be essential to make significant carbon savings. The UK Government’s ambition is to deliver a 27% reduction in carbon emissions from 2025 onwards, on average per building compared to the existing standard.

While more recently constructed buildings tend to be more energy efficient, the majority of the existing building stock isn’t very energy efficient. This means that decarbonising existing building stock is now a priority if the UK is to reach net zero by 2050. Particularly as most of the buildings we’ll be using in 2050 have already been built.

Buildings have seen some recent progress from policy-driven action. Temperature-adjusted emissions fell by 7% between 2009 and 2016, but have risen since then. Additionally, the overall efficiency of the UK’s boiler stock has improved, but progress and policy has been slow to improve insulation or switch to low carbon heating options, such as heat pumps.

Renewable heating solutions are now picking up pace again thanks to some direction from government policy. This is welcome news, as over 42% of the UK’s grid electricity came from renewable energy in 2020, meaning that heating via heat pumps is now greener than ever. Much more still needs to be done if we are to reach the government’s target of 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028.

At home, householders can install electricity generating technologies to get even more electricity from renewable sources and do their part to decarbonise the grid.

The UK Government’s Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme, which saw up to £500 million in funding allocated directly to local authorities, resulted in approved home energy efficiency measures being installed in eligible homes. There was also the domestic Green Homes Grant that let householder borrow up to £10,000 for home retrofit measures.

So, what’s next for homes? It will be hard to meet net zero by 2050 without a programme to help householders upgrade and retrofit their homes with low carbon heating solutions and insulation, so a scheme like the Green Homes Grant will be needed, as well as measures to support the tens of thousands of new green jobs highlighted in the Green Jobs Taskforce report.

Reducing carbon emissions further will require two key elements:

• Electrification of heat and a large-scale roll-out of heat pumps
• Green construction of buildings including a strengthening of the supply chain

The UK Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy was published in October. It marks a significant milestone on the path to the UK achieving a net zero society by 2050. The ambitions of this strategy look to phase out our reliance on the use of fossil fuels in homes and outline the provision of support for people transitioning to low carbon heat via heat pumps.

Upgrading gas boilers with heat pumps and growing heat networks will help provide the market with the confidence, clarity, and certainty to allow the scaling up of the supply chain and meet the pace needed for the UK to reach its net zero. Likewise, making changes to people’s homes will be essential to meet our climate targets so households must be supported with expert advice and financing to make the net zero transition as easy as possible.

The headline announcements in the strategy include:

• A £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme will go live in April 2022 offering households a £5,000 grant towards the cost of a heat pump.
  • Air source heat pumps currently cost between £7,000 – £13,000.
  • Ground source heat pumps currently cost between £14,000 – £19,000.
• Additional funding for existing programmes such as the Home Upgrade Grant for off-gas rural homes and the Local Authority Delivery Scheme portion of the Green Homes Grant. The government claims that they have announced £3.9 billion of new funding.
• A phase out of new gas boilers by 2035 and an ambition for 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028.

There are around 29 million homes in the UK, with 68% of those currently below the recommended EPC rating of ‘C’. That’s a lot of households that need support from local authorities and businesses.

If your business provides energy efficiency services or products for householders, we have several services that can help you reach these audiences:

• Home Analytics can give you the energy characteristic data of suitable homes in Great Britain thanks to our extensive databases and data-modelling.
• Infact can give you facts and statistics to help your consumer communications when it comes to energy efficiency.
• Product certification can highlight and verify the energy saving claims of energy efficient products.
• A sustainability strategy can get your business on the road to net zero, supporting your organisation’s long-term goals.