Claire Thornhill, Manager in Frontier’s Energy Practice, presented today at the Northern Ireland Fuel Poverty Coalition Conference. She spoke about a ‘Buildings Energy Infrastructure Programme’ which aims at achieving major energy savings in UK homes.
Frontier published a report setting out the recommendations in October 2017. The report is built on the wide body of policy proposals that have been developed in recent years and proposes a package of policies to provide a coherent programme of actions to improve the energy performance of UK homes.
Key recommendations included:
- A target for all homes to be brought up to an energy performance rating of C (on the A to G scale) by 2035, with all low-income households achieving a C rating by 2030
- A requirement for new homes to be constructed to a zero-carbon standard by 2020
- subsidies for all low-income home-owners to make energy efficiency renovations to their properties
- A demonstrator programme to test the most attractive schemes to unlock able-to-pay households’ investment in energy saving renovations. This includes zero interest loans, low interest equity loans that can be paid back only after a home is sold and salary sacrifice schemes like those for childcare vouchers
- Changes to ‘Stamp Duty’ to encourage renovations when people move home
- Tax allowances for private landlords and 50% subsidies for social landlords to undertake energy efficiency renovations
Frontier Economics regularly advises clients on issues relating to energy, climate change and distributional issues.
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