Autumn Budget must not cripple energy efficiency ahead of difficult winter

The trade association, representing more than 150 organisations, calls on the government to use the upcoming Budget to push ahead with the ECO+ scheme at this critical time to reduce gas use. This would accelerate the deployment of affordable loft and cavity wall insulation, whilst upholding manifesto commitments to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) and Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), as well as the pivotal Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) and decision to zero rate VAT on energy efficiency products.The ADE stresses these schemes are essential to minimising the pain felt by households across the UK as temperatures plummet and energy bills soar in coming months, and notes under no circumstances should see funding reduced - short-term cuts now would prove a false economy, creating further burdens on taxpayers in coming years.Jonny Bairstow, Head of External Affairs at the ADE, says: “The political and economic landscape has been nothing but turbulent in recent months, but looking to the future, one thing is certain - rapid action is urgently needed across clean heat, power, flexibility and energy efficiency if the UK is to successfully lift itself out of the current crisis.“Decentralised energy technologies are a key part of the solution, but Government must allocate suitable funding to enable actual long-term solutions. The worst-case scenario is that funding is actually withdrawn from critical schemes, such as those in the energy efficiency space, leaving families not only high and dry but poor and cold this winter. It’s important to consider that if previous efficiency schemes had not been prematurely scrapped, many homes would be in a better situation than they are today.”Outside of energy efficiency, the ADE also calls for more clarity on the future of critical heat network support schemes, including the £400 that was promised to customers on communal schemes as well as the £100 package for those using heating oil, living in park homes and those on heat networks. It emphasises that when the government pledges to provide ‘equivalent support’ to heat network customers, this must mean financial support that reduces their bills to a level equivalent to other, more mainstream energy customers.The trade association urges that the decentralised energy provisions set out in the now-paused energy security bill must not be forgotten amid the Budget announcement, and calls for them to be carried forward with immediate effect. It calls on the Government to: Maintain Bill provisions around the introduction of a heat network market framework and heat network zoning. Maintain Bill provisions around the introduction of an Independent System Operator and Planner (ISOP). Introduce Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) for the owner occupier housing sector.