GBRC

Last week was a busy week for the Grand Designs Great British Refurb campaign, and a really important week for UK homes’ energy efficiency. With your fantastic support we handed in our petition to No. 10 with over 8,000 signatures, sending a clear message that we all want the government to do more to help us reduce the impact of our homes on the environment.

Also last week the government published its Low Carbon Transition Plan, setting out plans for how it will meet the ambitious targets set in the 2008 Climate Change Act – a 34% cut in emissions by 2020 leading to an 80% cut by 2050.

The Low Carbon Transition Plan aims for household emissions to be close to zero by 2050, and to be achieving ‘whole house makeovers’ for 400,000 homes per year by 2015. Initiatives include the introduction of ‘feed in tariffs’ where people could be paid for generating their own electricity from low carbon sources. These are positive steps forward, although as ever with government plans, more detail is needed on the practicalities.

The government’s plan to roll out a Pay as You Save scheme which will reduce the upfront costs of eco-refurbishment for householders is another great idea – indeed our petition urged the government to introduce a scheme that would help householders in this way. However, WWF and the UK Green Building Council are disappointed that there is little on how the scheme will be rolled out fast enough to reach the 26 million UK homes needing urgent energy efficiency measures. We need to see the government taking bolder steps with definitive targets for reducing emissions from our homes.

Although there’s a long way to go, it’s great to see the government finally starting to take decisive action on homes, and a huge thank you to everyone who signed the petition – now we must keep the pressure on to ensure that this, and any future government, keeps pushing forward with greater ambition and effective plans to help reach those critical emissions cuts and make our homes cleaner, greener and more affordable.

Nicola Wilks

Campaigns Officer, WWF-UK