The Government’s flagship ‘English Housing Survey Report 2017-18’ was published in January, and one of the major headlines is quite damning: Energy Efficiency rates in England have stalled.
The report states: “The energy efficiency of English homes has increased considerably in the last 20 years, but has not increased since 2015.”
“In 2017, the average SAP rating of English dwellings was 62 points, up from 45 points in 1996. This increase was evident in all tenures. However, the increase appears to be slowing and there was no change in the average SAP rating of homes between 2016 and 2017 (in any tenure).”
Stuart Fairlie, Elmhurst Energy’s Technical & Operations Director, reflected upon the news; “The figure comes as no surprise to Elmhurst Energy. In 2015 the Government decided to slash any energy efficiency programmes and stop any regulation changes in an effort to remove the ‘green crap’ from bills and to Get Britain Building again (removing red tape!).
“In 2017, the Government’s ‘Clean Growth Strategy’ recognised that this had occurred and set about setting some new targets called the ‘2032 pathway’. These published statistics are extremely disappointing, but unfortunately so predictable.
“There have been some good initial signs of energy efficiency policy surrounding Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) in the private rental sector. What we now need to see is real action and real policy in all property tenures so that we can help to improve our homes for the benefit of all.”
