EiD has presented reports prepared by Jan Rosenow, a senior consultant at Ricardo-AEA and an associate lecturer at Oxford University, before. Now Jan together with Reg Platt of the Institute for Public Policy Research has produced an excellent report on solid wall insulation. It is definitely worth the ready.
Final Ricardo-AEA and IPPR report published on role for solid wall insulation
Following the issue of their interim report in March, Ricardo-AEA and IPPR have published their final report ‘Up Against the (Solid) Wall’ regarding solid wall insulation’s role in energy efficiency policy.
The report has been published in response to the Government’s plans to lower household energy bills by changing the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). The Government’s plans would lower energy bills by reducing energy suppliers’ obligations to fund energy efficiency improvements within people’s homes.
As a result of the proposed changes, suppliers would spend around £400 million less (30% reduction) on residential energy efficiency improvements. This means that suppliers will be able to reach their efficiency improvement targets by installing low cost measures, such as loft and cavity wall insulation, instead of expensive measures, in particular solid wall insulation, as was originally intended.
The changes aim to reduce annual household bills and would be implemented alongside compensatory measures (such as boosting the Green Deal programme) in order to offset the reduction in energy efficiency improvements.
Ricardo-AEA and IPPR’s report points out that, while the changes would lead to a short term reduction in energy bills, reducing energy consumption in the long term through technologies such as solid wall insulation could make a number of important contributions to policy objectives. The report argues that maintaining the ECO at its current level would:
Limit rising energy costs
Help meet the country’s legally binding carbon emission reduction targets
More effectively tackle fuel poverty as 45% of all fuel poor households live in solid wall properties
The report also explores the wider employment, tax and community implications of changing the ECO. The report shows that maintaining the current ECO would create 29,340 direct and indirect jobs (due to the greater labour intensity of solid wall insulation), offset the total cost of the Government’s solid wall insulation programmes by 50-70% through increased tax revenues, and deliver health improvements for many householders (residents within properties with solid wall insulation are less likely to require health treatment).
Ricardo-AEA and IPPR’s report concludes by stating that the Government should take the full range of benefits from solid wall insulation into account as part of its deliberations on changing the ECO.
The report can be downloaded here.
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 
I fear that this study may be a little naive, and has been seriously overtaken by politics of the crudest kind. The actual savings to the Big Six energy companies, as a result of the UK government’s concessions to them by decimating energy saving programmes, will be far higher than the initially figure quoted in this study. The energy companies are continuing to fight the entire concept of helping householders save money: their business models are predicated upon ever increasing sales of fuel. The fact that since 2000 the UK now consumers 12 % less fuel than we did then is deeply alarming to them.
You certainly know more than I do on this, no doubt. I am hoping that Jan will be able to respond.