Insulation targeted for Green Recovery

One of the major obstacles the UK needs to overcome in terms of energy efficiency is the dire lack of insulation in our existing building stock. Now a new suggestion by the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group may help tackle that. 

UK housing stock is among the least insulated in Europe, it ranks as one of the highest in heating bills and in 2013 an EU wide analysis found the UK had one of the highest levels of fuel poverty and over 10 million British families lived in a home with a leaking roof, damp walls or rotting windows. In 2015 the Association for the Conservation of Energy dubbed the UK the "Cold Man of Europe". 

Without properly insulated homes there is little chance that the UK could make the necessary carbon savings in line with its aim to have attained net zero carbon status by 2050. 

The Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group has published a report that suggests the government could make the investment now to create jobs in insulation. These would be cheap for the government to subsidise, improve energy efficiency, reduce fuel poverty and deaths related to cold weather, and reboot an area of the economy that would impact all nations and regions and provide good jobs throughout the country. 

The Local Government Association has also brought out a report calling for national skills and employment schemes to be directly aligned with the clean energy sector. They estimate that 700,000 new jobs could be created by 2030 in England's low carbon and renewables energy economy.   

Both reports demonstrate how national and local government, trade, industry and non governmental organisations are looking at ways of assisting the economy to recover from the coronavirus pandemic while committing wholeheartedly to the UK's 2050 carbon neutral target.