Government to fund insulation for middle-income earners to slash bills
Plans to fund loft and cavity wall insulation, alongside smart heating controls, are set to be unveiled by Business Secretary Grant Shapps.
This includes offering middle-income households grants worth up to £15,000 to make their homes more energy efficient, according to The Times.
The new fund will be aimed at those who are able to pay, unlike other energy efficiency schemes, with the Government allocating £1bn in funding from existing budgets for the next three years.
Ministers make the money available to people living in council tax bands A to D – and meet 75 per cent of the cost of any upgrades.
The scheme will run from April and cover efficiency measures for more than 70,000 homes and save hundreds of pounds a year.
It will be overseen by energy suppliers, in contrast to the now axed green homes grant.
Price cap hike exposes rising Government bills and drives insulation policy
This follows Cornwall Insight hiking its energy price cap forecast to £4,279 per year from January.
With average household bills subsidised at £2,500 per year, this means the Government will have to make up a £1,779 per year difference between bill-payer rates and the price cap.
For context, household energy bills were averaging £1,277 per year as recently as March.
Cornwall Insight has raised its forecast for the overall cost of the support package to £42bn over the next 18 months.
The Government hopes people will be able to make heavy savings – with industry calculations suggesting cavity wall insulation costs £2,500 to install but can save £500 plus per year from energy bills while loft insulation can cost up to £1,100 but save over £600 per year.
Smart heating technologies such as advanced thermostats and thermostatic valves cost up to £800 and can save £525 a year.
The scheme is one of multiple measures announced by the Government geared towards people’s energy use by 15 per cent by 2030.
The Government has invested £6.6bn in total this Parliament to improve energy efficiency across the country.
Last year, it unveiled the Heat and Buildings Strategy, setting out a decarbonisation plan for households alongside commercial, industrial and public sector buildings.
However, installation rates have dropped sharply in the past decade from over two million homes per year to just tens of thousands after former Prime Minister David Cameron slashed previous efficiency schemes – according to the Climate Change Committee.
Earlier this week, the newspaper first reported that ministers were preparing to announce a £25m public information campaign encouraging people to use less energy.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has encouraged people to join a “national mission” to reduce the UK’s energy dependency on overseas suppliers and volatile gas markets – which have been subject to a Kremlin-backed supply squeeze since the country’s invasion of Ukraine.