The UK’s energy efficiency and electric vehicle markets look set to receive significant boosts through deals signed as part of the country’s trade deal with China, valued at hundreds of millions of pounds.

Former energy secretary Ed Davey has claimed that the decision to axe the Zero Carbon Homes initiative before it had started is “the worst thing the Tories have done”.

Energy minister Andrea Leadsom has broken the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s silence on the cancelled Zero Carbon Homes initiative, labelling it “an obstacle” to solving the UK’s housing crisis.

A report published by think tank Green Alliance has claimed that the UK public could save as much as £2.5 billion by 2025 if the government introduced a feed-in tariff for energy efficiency technologies.

The former management team of failed installer Mark Group has confirmed that it has successfully acquired its insulation arm, saving more than 200 jobs that were up for redundancy.

Solar installers looking to diversify into new technologies should the government’s 87% cuts to the feed-in tariff come into force are looking at a large number of markets, a Solar Media survey has found.

The Mark Group, the residential and commercial installer that entered administration yesterday after SunEdison sold it back to its management team, is to repurpose itself in the energy efficiency market when it emerges from administration proceedings.

The UK’s drive to both build more energy efficient homes and retrofit existing ones with energy efficient measures could lead to an 80% increase in asthma sufferers as indoor air quality suffers.

The Republic of Ireland government is to launch a €130 million fund for energy efficiency and domestic renewables in a bid to combat fuel poverty in the country.

The Conservative Party’s candidate for the London Mayoralty Zac Goldsmith has said he wants London to be the “greenest city on Earth” and eyed a greater adoption of electric vehicles to solve its air pollution problem.