Energy firms have been issued with an insulation warning, over claims they aren’t doing enough to improve energy efficiency.
The energy secretary, Chris Huhne, has turned up the heat on the ‘Big Six’ energy companies, warning them that they will fall short of set targets if they don’t double the rate at which they are insulating UK homes.
The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (Cert) states that energy providers must make free or discounted insulation measures available to consumers; measures which could help households reduce their heating bills by up to £100 a year.
Energy efficiency issues remain high on the Government’s agenda – after tougher goals were demanded last year – and according to the latest figures, around 300,000 loft and cavity wall insulations have taken place in the last three months.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has said that 58% of homes now have adequately insulated lofts, with the same number of homes benefiting from adequate cavity wall insulation. However, two-fifths of UK homes still have inadequate loft insulation, with inadequate cavity wall insulation present in around the same number of homes.
While the latest quarterly statistics reveal that the number of professionally installed insulation measures have increased by 21% compared to the same three month period last year, DECC are warning energy companies that they will need to double the rate at which they are treating homes if they have any chance of meeting set goals. This would essentially increase the number of monthly energy efficient insulations taking place from 100,000 in the past year to 200,000 a month.
