The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) hassubmitted a response to the Government's Building a Market for Energy Efficiency consultation.
Richard Twinn, Policy Advisor at UKGBC said it strongly welcome the ambition set out in the Clean Growth Strategy to improve as many homes as practical to EPC band C by 2035.
The UKGBC says this provides a clear signal about the scale of the challenge in improving existing housing and will require the improvement of up to 19 million homes – including 11 million owner occupied properties – over the next eighteen years.
"To meet this challenge, we have joined with a broad range of business and environment groups in calling for energy efficiency to be recognised as a national infrastructure priority," he said.
"This national programme for energy efficiency will need to be based on a comprehensive framework of incentives, advice, regulations and finance options which cover all tenures and household circumstances.
"Building a genuine market for energy efficiency will be a key part of this programme and will mean moving away from the current focus on individual measures towards a whole home approach which aims to achieve tangible benefits for householders.
"The aim of the policy framework and the Industrial Strategy more widely should be to develop a professional home improvement sector which can deliver energy improvements as part of an integrated package of home renovation tailored to the property and householder. This will be crucial to build trust and demand, and deliver the scale and depth of interventions needed to meet the UK’s carbon budgets.”
