Mission possible: Delivering tomorrow’s homes today
With the British public at its heart, government can improve lives by enabling delivery of low-carbon homes with permanently low energy bills for all
According to government data, 62% of the British public is worried about their energy bills1. The UK can’t afford a new energy crisis, and within current cost-of-living pressures, government mustn’t allow families to waste their hard-earned income on high energy bills in cold and draughty homes.
MIMA, in partnership with the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group (EEIG), has launched its new manifesto: Tomorrow’s Homes Today, calling on politicians and prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) to support the pledge to deliver warm, comfortable, low-carbon homes with permanently low bills in every constituency.
With ambition, but cognisant of fiscal constraints, this manifesto aims to deliver change with outcomes driven policy and powerful incentives supported by end-to-end quality assurance and aspiring to help every type of household and building owner across the country.
We are calling on PPCs to support a 25-year national buildings renovation plan aided by a two term Parliament, ten-year package of policies, which will give confidence to the public and deliver real improvements to their homes and, with lower bills, keep more money in their pockets.
The manifesto is based around seven pledges that will scale up quality home upgrades:
- Deliver warm and comfortable homes for all by empowering homeowners with incentives, such as an energy-saving stamp duty, to invest in energy efficiency improvements in their homes.
- Make fuel poverty a thing of the past through expansion and unification of existing effective retrofit schemes, and high-impact tax incentives for private landlords to expedite action to improve their properties.
- Unblock sector delivery by creating the right conditions for building renovation to deliver quality outcomes – with greater flexibility in both schemes eligibility requirements, and for skilled building retrofit teams to deliver quality retrofits.
- Boost consumer confidence in retrofit schemes with urgent reforms to EPCs to make them more accurate and reliable. Measuring the actual efficiency of homes will improve the overall retrofit experience.
- Leverage local delivery by increasing practical and financial support for every local authority, and create greater capacity for councils to deliver successful retrofit programmes.
- Enable experts to help catalyse action with a tailored national energy efficiency advice scheme and a countrywide network of local retrofit facilitation hubs to draw in expertise and support homeowners.
- Lock in energy savings by setting and monitoring retrofit progress, and where necessary, bringing in minimum standards down the line. Please find the manifesto at www.theeeig.co.uk.
In a General Election, the public will vote for policies that they can see and feel, that make a real difference to their day-to-day quality of living. Supporting routes for improving UK homes and buildings can be central for showing voters why they should put their trust in parliamentary candidates.
Our manifesto will not only support the public – from the fuel poor to private renters and homeowners – but develop a true partnership with businesses. It is a clear roadmap for public-private partnerships to bolster investor confidence and unlock much-needed private investment. This approach will sustain investment in jobs, communities, and businesses, building the public’s trust and confidence, protecting our energy security, and giving British businesses the crucial long-term certainty that they need to invest and upscale with quality assurance at its heart.
Sarah Kostense-Winterton
Everyone should have the choice and opportunity for a warm, comfortable, low-carbon home with permanently lower bills, also delivering a genuine reduction in domestic UK energy demand.
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