Sunak quietly drops another energy benchmark over the...

The government's energy efficiency taskforce was quietly disbanded over the weekend, the BBC says.

The taskforce was set up in March to speed up home insulation and boiler upgrades and was chaired by ex NatWest chief executive Alison Rose.

Energy efficiency minister Lord Callanan wrote to members of the group on Friday saying the group would be dissolved. In the letter, seen by the BBC, Callanan says the group's work would be "streamlined" into ongoing government activity.

The minister writes that the ideas and discussions that had come from the group had been "hugely valuable in supporting the ambition to reduce total UK energy demand by 15 per cent from 2021 levels by 2030."

He adds that the work to date had not been "wasted" and that "draft recommendations will be instrumental in driving forward this important agenda."

The taskforce's membership included the chair of the National Infrastructure Commission Sir John Armitt; head of leading housebuilder Barratt Developments, David Thomas; and leading experts from the University of Salford, the UK Green Building Council and National Energy Action.

Towards the end of last week Sunak announced that he would scrap policies to force landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties, but instead continue to encourage households to do so where they can.

He also revealed an increase in the Boiler Upgrade Grant by 50 per cent to £7,500 to help households who want to replace their gas boilers with a low-carbon alternative like a heat pump; and a ban on installing oil and LPG boilers, and new coal heating, for off-gas-grid homes to 2035, instead of phasing them out from 2026.

And he set an exemption to the phase out of fossil fuel boilers, including gas, in 2035, so that households who will most struggle to make the switch to heat pumps or other low-carbon alternatives won’t have to do so. This is expected to cover about a fifth of homes, including off-gas-grid homes which would need expensive retrofitting or a very large electricity connection.

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Peter Why Do I Bother
25 September 2023 09:36 AM

Correct she does have a lot to answer for, shame for her this has been disbanded as she now has literally nothing to do....! Maybe she get herself to another free lunch and start gobbing off about other peoples finances.

Adrian Haynes
25 September 2023 08:43 AM

I was not going to vote Tory ever again. But thanks to the above comment that’s our entire household back with them. ANYTHING is better than the thought of a Starmer/ Rayner government.