Chair comment: Decarbonising home heating

“The NAO’s latest report is a timely reminder of the challenges that remain in improving the energy performance of our homes. While the Government is making progress towards decarbonising homes through insulation schemes, more remains to be done. Decarbonising older and less efficient homes will be more difficult, but it is an unavoidable part of the net zero transition.

“Rapid adoption of innovative technologies like heat pumps can play a bigger role in moving these harder to insulate homes away from fossil fuel heat. But successfully installing heat pumps often requires significant additional work. The now disbanded Energy Efficiency Taskforce was expected to propose innovative ways to make installations and retrofits more affordable; improving affordability must remain top of the agenda.

“The Committee knows that decarbonising our housing stock is a central part of the journey to net zero. Throughout this Parliament, we have sought to point the Government in the right direction, and returned to examine this topic frequently. We are likely to do so again before the next election, and I look forward to conducting further scrutiny on the Government’s plans.”

Further information

• Environmental Audit Committee
• About Parliament: Select committees
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