Autumn Budget 2024 - moving homeowners towards greener living

In our pre-Autumn Budget article, we laid out the areas we wanted to see being supported and funded to fuel the green economy, so the announcement yesterday from the Chancellor has been somewhat positive for our sector.

Here’s a recap of some of the more relevant announcements:

• An initial three year commitment to providing an additional £3.4bn to low carbon heat and domestic energy efficiency improvements
• An increase in funding for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme heat pump incentive in England and Wales
• More than £1bn to be invested next year into the supply chain for supporting more energy efficient heat production
• Increased financing for housing and infrastructure development, aiming to increase clean energy generation
• A £46m commitment to increase training and recruitment to accelerate housing projects and the capacity of local planning authorities to approve work. In addition, the Government’s Skills England organisation will look at the critical reforms needed to develop a workforce with the sufficient skills and capacity to provide lower carbon buildings, heating and energy at scale

For us, this is a welcome boost to the work already being done in the sector to move more homeowners more easily towards sustainable energy choices. Of particular note is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, confirmed until December 2027 - what this means is that each eligible home continues to be able to access £7,500 to install low-carbon heating, such as heat pumps.

However it’s a boost for homeowners and for everyone in our sector doing their bit to reduce carbon emissions and move us all closer towards net zero and a cleaner, greener living environment.

What we didn’t see any detail on was a commitment to rebalancing of electricity and gas pricing, which would instantly make low carbon heating more accessible to more UK households. Similarly, changes in planning restrictions on retrofitting of properties to support installation of greener technologies wasn’t addressed.

We’re hurtling toward the net zero deadline and still have loads to do. However, it’s not just this deadline that should drive us. It’s wanting to make changes to the way we live that will sustain future generations to come and these first commitments by the new Government are moving things in the right direction. We would welcome the opportunity to develop a 10-15 year plan of guaranteed investment and spending, which avoids the short termism of the past, to enable the sector to properly invest and build rapidly. We need to get to a point where we are able to address the issue at speed.

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