The talk of the VOR office this week has been the newly formed Department for Energy Security and Net-Zero, and what this means for social housing retrofit and local authority retrofit schemes.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has created four new government departments, splitting the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) up and creating a dedicated energy security and net-zero function.
A Government statement says that the new Department has been tasked with “securing our long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and halving inflation”.
The statement continues: “The move recognises the significant impact rising prices have had on households across the country due to Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine and the need to secure more energy from domestic nuclear and renewable sources as we seize the opportunities of net zero.”
The government has indicated that the current approach must be revised to deliver the necessary emissions cuts; but will this focus on energy supply, bill reduction, and inflation reduction address the issue of reducing carbon emissions and combatting the climate crisis?
The UK government is legally obliged to update its Net-Zero Strategy by the end of March, and VOR hopes this will address these issues.
It remains to be seen how exactly the Department for Energy Security and Net-Zero plans to achieve its goals and whether there will be any changes to funding streams such as SHDF, ECO, HUGS and LADS but we hope the new department will continue to support housing retrofit with an emphasis on quality and compliance.
