A house building firm claims more people want to move to increasingly energy-efficient homes.
A survey by Redrow shows that 26 per cent of existing homeowners would like to move to a more energy efficient home in order to make savings on their bills.
Meanwhile 58 per cent of homeowners admit they’re more worried about escalating energy bills than they were last year, with younger examples (18 to 34 year olds) being twice as likely to consider moving to a more energy efficient home than their older counterparts.
And 67 per cent say it’s more important to live in an energy efficient home now than just a year ago, with 31 per cent claiming a low EPC rating is one of their biggest frustrations with their current house.
Believing their house is too old to be energy efficient (29 per cent of respondents) continues to be a hurdle stopping homeowners from updating older properties.
Precisely a third say they would prefer to move into an energy efficient home, rather than trying to retrofit their current home with energy efficient features. When the time comes to move, nearly two fifths say they would opt for a new build specifically due to its energy efficient features.
In addition, 21 per cent say they are more likely to consider installing a heat pump than they were a year ago. However, only 14 per cent of homeowners are looking to install solar PV panels. Double glazing (76 per cent), loft insulation (68 per cent) and energy efficient lighting such as LED (50 per cent) are the efficient features that are most commonly installed or looking to be installed by renovators.
James Holmear, a Redrow director, says: “Today’s new figures clearly show that people’s concerns about energy have not gone away this year and in fact for many Britons, they are more pressing than ever. It’s no surprise therefore to see so many people considering a new home with the average new build homeowner already saving £135 a month on energy bills.
“The number of people visiting our developments with energy efficient features at the top of their priority list has increased, and we’ve launched our EPC calculator tool across all our customer experience suites.”
