Is the UK’s energy efficiency drive another brick in the leaky wall?

A new report by the Resolution Foundation is calling for an urgent upgrade of England’s nine million leaky homes to support the country’s target to decarbonise the housing stock.

The independent think tank suggests four-in-ten homes in England have walls rated as “poor” or “very poor” compared with two-in-ten homes with inefficient roofs and one-in-ten homes with poorly-graded windows.

Analysts estimate that 64% of all homes in London have poor-quality walls.

The report calls for a radical new ‘carrot and stick’ approach, combining targeted financial help for home improvements with a ban on poorly insulated homes by 2035.

Jonny Marshall, Senior Economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “England’s homes have as large a carbon footprint as our petrol and diesel powered cars. The key policy task for the 2020s is finding a way of decarbonising millions of homes without leaving poorer households behind or burdening them with unaffordable costs.

“Previous approaches such as cheap loans have failed to deliver improvements at scale, and the biggest barrier to energy efficient homes has been largely ignored: our leaky walls. The sheer cost of insulating Britain’s walls means that the state cannot be expected to foot the bill entirely.”

Article source: https://www.energylivenews.com/2022/12/13/leaky-walls-the-biggest-challenge-in-uks-energy-efficiency-drive-new-analysis-finds/