Why is the UK’s ministry responsible for energy still ignoring so many energy saving options?

A new government department designed to deliver net zero seems to be ignoring the strategic role energy efficiency could and should play. Andrew Warren, Chairman of the British Energy Efficiency Federation discusses the approach of the government ministry in the November/December issue of Energy in Buildings & Industry.

Note that since this article was published, the UK government presented its “Autumn Statement” – effectively a mini-budget – and climate experts lamented a lack of boldness and, yes, no mention of energy efficiency. Well, the statement never used the word ‘climate’ either.

 

Whatever happened to the idea of the ‘first energy priority’?

The cheapest and most environmentally friendly energy is the energy we can avoid using in the first place.  That has long been an uncontroversial bipartisan truth,  endorsed by every Government, and indeed every serious opposition party.

So, in theory, the creation of a new Government department specifically named as , and charged with, delivering energy security and net zero, ought to be running with what the Coalition Government of 2010 to 2015 routinely described as the “first energy priority”.

But all the evidence is that, ever since this Department was founded , it has entirely deprioritised plans to promote greater investment in energy efficiency.

Consider. As fuel prices soared internationally, a new government White Paper on energy security was published with great fanfares.

Similar policy developments were also initiated by other Governments throughout Europe. Without exception, these emphasised strongly the role that reducing  wasteful consumption could play in delivering energy security. This led to overall reductions across the European Union in gas consumption of 19.3%.

In contrast the UK government managed a minimal drop of 1% in gas consumption Last year, the International Monetary Fund had specifically  warned that UK households were more exposed to the energy price crisis than any others in Western Europe, due to the nation’s energy inefficient buildings.

No strategic role

The UK White Paper ran  to 137 pages, but nonetheless  failed to include any acknowledgment at all of any strategic role that energy efficiency could, let alone should, play in delivering  greater energy security. Thus ensuring that the lights stayed on – even if they were all still incandescent, rather than LEDs.

Delivering net zero by 2050 is, as the International Energy Agency keeps reminding us, needs to be delivered every bit as much by cutting out wastage as by altering the kind of fuel believed. It does seem that this fact has got lost in the new Department, where the entire concentration on achieving “net  zero” seems to be based upon switching fuels.

The winning manifesto at the 2019 General Election committed the Government to spending  just £9.3bn across 5 years on promoting energy efficiency. It may manage £6bn if lucky.

In 2020  Green Homes Grants were introduced, with an annual budget of £1.5bn, providing funds to install energy saving measures. Subsequently, a scathing National Audit Office reported that, because these grants were skewed so heavily towards installing heat pumps ( of which just 30,000 were being put in annually), instead of more established measures like better glazing or new LEDs, little of the money was spent before the programme was abandoned overnight without warning. Much as the earlier Green Deal scheme had been, just after the Coalition Government ended.

Subsequently, a grants programme has been reinstated – with a far lower budget. But  now excluding the entire building fabric, only subsidising heat pumps.

Indeed DESNZ has just concluded a public consultation, via a  press release called: “Boost to heat pump rollout, with plans for cheaper and easier installation.”  Tellingly, its fourth paragraph promises : “Households could also save time and money through a simplified approach to qualifying for a heat pump grant , by removing the need to install loft or cavity wall insulation ”

‘Fabric first’ principle

Previously Government had always argued that if you want to reduce fuel bills at home ,the first thing any householder should do is to insulate and double glaze the building, so as to minimise the amount of energy needed to be purchased. This is called the “fabric first” principle, endorsed by practically every recognised building specialist.

It is absurd that, in this drive to remove gas and oil boilers, every householder now seem  overtly  to  be being discouraged by DESNZ from making financial  savings by improving the fabric of the buildings they occupy.

Were this  purblind policy change to be implemented, the   UK Government could be falling into the same trap that the  Northern Ireland Executive did 15 years ago, when it introduced its version of the Renewable Heat incentive without making any commensurate requirements for fabric changes from those installing the NIE’s preferred  heating mechanisms.  The consequent “Cash for  Ash” mega-scandal directly prompted a collapse of the then Northern Ireland administration.

Energy efficiency task force

This  March, the Government did announce with great fanfare a special energy efficiency task force of  15 of the Quite Great and Very Good, charged with ”supporting our ambition to reduce total UK energy demand by 15% from 2021 levels by 2030”.

The 2023  taskforce were told to place a particular focus on the role of the private sector and the stimulation of investment. Its’ priority areas of focus were to include “stimulate the supply chain to address and increase investment, reduce skills gaps, accelerate pathways to accreditation, improve product manufacturing capability, and increase the wider availability of materials required to deliver high quality upgrades at pace”.

Plus “identifying barriers and opportunities in existing market and regulatory frameworks to delivering the demand reduction ambition”.

Working at pace, within two months, the taskforce concluded its recommendations, and forwarded them to DESNZ. Who responded by unceremoniously sacking the chair and the members,  whilst refusing to publish any word from them.

The former Conservative MP Laura Sandys sat on that taskforce. She said she was “disappointed” by the decision to disband it, and “confused about the government’s intentions on the cost of living”.

Ms  Sandys, now chair of the Green Alliance, said energy efficiency must be the “first priority to reduce citizens’ costs” and “improve energy security”. Precisely what the priority the Coalition government in which she served kept emphasising.