Regen’s members have been sounding the alarm at the chaos of the Green Homes Grant, and the impact on households and green jobs, for months. Shifting some of the funding to be delivered by local authorities is an attempt to make the most of a bad situation, but doesn’t change the fact that the government’s first attempt at a green recovery has been a deeply disappointing failure.
Our graphic below visualises the scale of the government’s failure in delivering the scheme and portrays the urgency of the need for a clear plan with tangible policy action to meet the challenge of upgrading leaky homes and get us to net zero.
The government is setting ambitious policy goals and showing welcome international leadership in the run up to COP26 in Glasgow. But ambition alone is not enough, we need urgent action to cut emissions now, mobilise the hundreds of thousands of skilled tradespeople needed to fix our leaky homes and put us on course for net zero.
The government must now take the opportunity of the long-awaited Heat and Buildings Strategy to put in place a clear vision, with tangible action, for greening our homes. Back in 2019 in our report on Decarbonising Heat, Regen called for measures including: ending the distortion caused by government levies on electricity by shifting these costs to gas and oil, a clear long-term funding stream for greening our homes, reducing VAT on retrofit and introducing regulatory nudges (triggered by sale or extension) to improve homes, and devolving power and funding for decarbonising heat to local authorities.
