A group of nearly 50 organisations representing finance, fuel poverty, local authorities, academia, retrofit, manufacturing and civil society have written to the Prime Minister to fund new energy efficiency support, such as “ECO Plus”with new public spending commitments, rather than by diverting much-needed funding from schemes supporting critical energy-saving measures for public buildings like schools and hospitals.
While the groups warmly support a well-designed “ECO Plus” scheme for those at risk of fuel poverty, they warn against removing money from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) or other existing green homes budgets (such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme), as was suggested might be the case in recent media coverage.
Schools and hospitals are facing soaring energy bills that damage their ability to deliver vital public services. The NHS’ energy bill is predicted to more than double this year to £1.2bn. Cutting phase 3B of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, as is reportedly being considered, could cost the NHS £519m in lost funding, directly undermining hospitals’ ability to tackle their rising energy costs and put more money back into patient care.
The letter was supported by:
| E3G |
| Active Building Centre Research Programme |
| Age UK |
| Aldersgate Group |
| Architects Climate Action Network |
| Centre for Better Ageing |
| Chartered Institute of Housing |
| CPRE – the countryside charity |
| Dimitri Zenghelis, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge |
| Double Glazing & Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme |
| Ecology Building Society |
| Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group |
| End Fuel Poverty Coalition |
| Energy Saving Trust |
| European Energy Heating UK Ltd |
| Green Finance Institute |
| Greenpeace UK |
| Ground Source Heat Pump Association |
| Groundwork UK |
| Heat Pump Association |
| Heat Pump Federation |
| HIES Consumer Code |
| Home Improvement Consumer Protection Scheme |
| ICAX Ltd |
| Insulated Render and Cladding Association (INCA) |
| IPPR |
| IRT Surveys Ltd. |
| Kingfisher |
| MCS Charitable Foundation |
| Mineral wool Insulation Manufacturers Association |
| Nesta |
| Northern Housing Consortium |
| Possible Pure Solar Ltd |
| Regen |
| Rendesco |
| ROCKWOOL UK |
| Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Solar Energy UK |
| Superglass |
| The Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) |
| The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency |
| The Insulation Assurance Authority |
| The Kensa Group |
| UK Green Building Council |
| UK100 |
| Uplift |
| WWF |
| 38 Degrees |
