Installing heat pumps and good insulation across England's homes could knock hundreds of pounds off household bills, and create millions of jobs, new analysis suggests.
Researchers at the IPPR think tank have drawn up a 28-year plan to deliver energy-saving domestic upgrades across the country, in a bid to ease the strain on people's wallets and the environment, at an annual cost of £7 billion.
They claim the move can become “the cornerstone of the Government’s levelling-up strategy in England”, as those communities with the highest demand for installers tend to be current or former industrial centres and coastal communities outside London and the South East.
The Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group (EEIG), has written to Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng ahead of his mini-budget on Friday, urging him to invest £5 billion more to insulate UK buildings.
The IPPR said that all of England’s 24 million homes need upgrading, putting the country “far behind” European neighbours like Germany and France.
The UK is currently installing less than a tenth of the measures needed in its “cold, damp and leaky” housing stock to meet its net zero target, it said, with the pace of deployment required only increasing in the face of the “dire” energy price crisis.
The scheme could create more than 61,200 new direct roles in the North East, equivalent to more than 5% of the total job market in the region, the IPPR said.
Cllr David Renard, environment spokesperson for the Local Government Association said: “Councils have long been calling for further investment into retrofitting homes and public buildings.
"Not only do poorly insulated buildings waste money for households and the public purse, but they also dampen local and national efforts to reach climate change targets."
