Trade union warns green home upgrades are restricted to wealthy owners

In a new report by Unison, experts claimed the government needs to up their game when it comes to providing energy efficient homes – as it stands, only the wealthy can secure them. 

Within the report the union claimed that without a major rethink on financial help and incentives, the UK faces ‘painfully slow’ progress on green homes and won’t meet its 2050 net-zero target, which was announced in 2019 in a bid to reduce emissions by 80% compared to 1990 levels.

The report found that short-term policies and a complex array of ‘ever-changing support packages’ have left millions of households with insufficient help to meet soaring energy bills.

Against this backdrop, in July 2020 the government announced a £3bn package for British homeowners to make their houses more energy efficient and improve insulation efforts. The scheme offered households up to £10,000 to insulate their property, but it severely underperformed.

In addition, in October last year, PayPoint, a UK organisation that handles top-up payments in shops, uncovered that a vast number of households had failed to receive vouchers in which the government had introduced as part of their Energy Bill Support Scheme. The payment company were expected to process 800,000 vouchers in October worth over £5m, however the business claimed only £27m had been redeemed.

However, IPPR researchers said last year that retrofitting England’s homes with good insulation and heat pumps could create millions of jobs and cut household bills. Although, the Unison report found that most incentives to encourage a switch to greener energy involve considerable upfront costs, meaning that it is wealthier households that are most likely to benefit.

Nevertheless, in a survey of public sector workers who own their own homes, conducted for the report, 79% said they were concerned about climate change and global warming. Additionally, more than seven in 10 said they were keen to switch to cleaner energy, but felt they were not being offered enough government support to do so.

Research also highlighted, more than three quarters said that even with up to £5,000 available from government grants to upgrade to a modern air-source heat pump, they would be unable to afford the extra £3,000-5,000 they’d need to finance the remainder themselves.

Just 4% of those polled thought government schemes aimed at encouraging the switch to clean energy systems were affordable and aimed at them.

Unison General Secretary, Christina McAnea, said: ‘The UK is in the last-chance saloon. Ministers must get to grips with this problem now, not in years to come when it’s too late. Those households who can least afford to switch to cleaner energy are the ones needing help the most with their bills.

‘What’s needed is a fair system that works for everyone, not just those with the most money. Without a drastic change in tack from government, a greener future is just a distant dream.’