Boosting investment in energy efficiency would result in thousands of new jobs, energy bill savings in the billions and deliver a boost to the UK’s GDP, according to a study published today.
The report, Building the Future: The economic and fiscal impacts of making homes energy efficient, published by Energy Bill Revolution, E3G and co-funded by the UK Green Building Council, calculates that every £1 invested in energy efficiency results in £3.20 being returned to the UK economy through increased GDP.
The UK has some of the least energy efficient housing stock in Western Europe which, combined with escalating energy bills, is exacerbating fuel poverty. Additionally, buildings account for 37% of all UK carbon emissions so improving energy efficiency could help significantly reduce the UK’s carbon emissions.
However, the insulation market shrunk by 22% in 2013 on the back of David Cameron’s pledge to strip out the ‘Green Crap’ and scrap the ECO. The move resulted in a 46% drop in cavity wall insulation, an 86% drop in loft insulation and a 30% fall in solid wall insulation compared to the number of measures installed under the Carbon Emissions REduction Target (CERT) in 2012.
The Energy Bill Revolution is calling on the government to ensure that all low income homes are lifted up to Band C on an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) by 2025. In addition, the group want to see all other households in the UK given access to 0% interest loans to help up the energy performance of the rest of the UK housing stock.
The report calculates that such a move would deliver 0..6% relative GDP improvement by 2030 and generate £1.25 in tax revenues for every £1 of government investment. As a result, the report estimates that the scheme would have paid for itself by 2024, generating net revenue afterwards.
In addition, making energy efficiency a national priority could add up to 108,000 net jobs per annum from 2020-2030 which would be distributed across the UK. The study says that there is a 2.27:1 cost benefit ratio (value for money) for adopting the Energy Bill Revolution’s proposals, which classifies it as a ‘high’ value for money infrastructure programme. The report concludes: “The economic case for making energy efficiency of the UK housing stock a national infrastructure priority is strong.”
Commenting on the results of the study, John Alker, director of policy and communications at the UK Green Building Council, said: “We’ve now got the hard evidence to prove what many have been saying for a long time: government spending on energy efficiency is not a frivolous drain on the public purse, but a rock solid investment proposition for UK Plc.
“The challenge now for all political parties is to set out a way for energy efficiency to not only be classified as a national infrastructure priority, but to benefit from capital investment to pump prime the market. It can no longer be considered the poor relation to shiny new energy generation projects.”
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