Frontline enterprises and organisations have questioned the UK Government’s heat and buildings strategy, announced yesterday (October 19).
Ashden helped innovators respond to the strategy on national and regional media programmes. Organisations gave a cautious welcome to news that the government would offer households around £5,000 to install heat pumps, and has earmarked £60million of investment for heat pump innovation.
But Anneaka Kellay of Carbon Co-op – a finalist in the 2021 Ashden Award for Green Skills – warned LBC that new pumps would be ineffective without investment in upgrading draughty homes. She said: “What lots of the industry is looking for is long-term, clear, well thought-out strategic policy – and this doesn’t feel like. It feels quite similar to the Green Homes Grant last year, which ended up failing.”
Experts have criticised government plans to subsidise low-carbon heat pumps in place of gas boilers for homeowners in England and Wales….@aneaka1 is from Manchester energy co-operative @CarbonCoop who are among those questioning the plans @LBC | @LBCNews pic.twitter.com/GJfuhHY5CM
— Tom Dunn (@tomdunn26) October 19, 2021
Russell Smith, chief executive of Ashden Award winner Parity Projects, appeared on Sky News calling for more urgency from government. Writing on Twitter later, he called for more detail on standards, and support to move the take-up of heat pumps beyond “today’s early adopters”.
.@RetrofitRuss talking #heatandbuildingsstrategy on @SkyNews, making the case for #energyefficiency. The strategy fails to take the opportunity offered by renovations. We need to get beyond talk of ‘payback’, #energyefficiency should be integral to the home improvement market. pic.twitter.com/mKXk369DJY
— Parity Projects (@parityprojects) October 19, 2021
Heat pump innovators Kensa Group – a finalist in the 2021 Ashden Award for UK Climate Innovation – were interviewed for Channel 5 News.
In a piece for Thomson Reuters, Ashden’s Cara Jenkinson highlighted how Kensa Group is upskilling workers and adopting a street-by-street approach, featuring split ownership models and individual networked heat pumps, in a bid to increase uptake to reduce costs.
Writing for Sustinable Business, Ashden CEO Harriet Lamb called for the government to “swing behind the skills agenda“, and prioritise training a workforce than can deliver zero carbon housing.
Ashden’s own analysis also appeared in Local Government Chronicle, Environment Journal and Construction Industry News.
- Hear more from organisations decarbonising UK buildings at the 2021 Ashden Awards celebration. Register today to watch online on November 4.
