The Energy Efficiency Taskforce and similar Conservative casualties

We’ve listed some of the most notable energy-efficiency schemes that have bitten the dust under the Conservatives since 2010, scrutinising the impact these decisions have had on the UK’s decarbonisation efforts.

The Energy Efficiency Taskforce is the latest in a long line of scrapped Conservative schemes initially intended to help deliver greener, more energy-efficient homes. This recent casualty represents a wider trend of introducing promising green policies only to be scrapped a few years, or months, down the line. 

We’ve taken a look at the past 13 of Conservative policy, highlighting the impact of prematurely scrapped schemes on the country’s efforts to improve energy efficiency and decarbonise – and what needs to change going forward. 

Zero Carbon Homes Policy

Introduced: 2006 | Ended: 2015 

First announced by then-Labour-Chancellor Gordon Brown in 2006, the Zero Carbon Homes Policy was an ambitious initiative aimed at ensuring all newly built UK homes would produce net-zero carbon emissions from their energy use. 

Despite being billed as a way to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the UK’s housing stock, in 2015, David Cameron’s government scrapped the policy – along with proposals for tighter energy efficiency standards – opting for a less ambitious approach to improving the energy efficiency of new homes. 

The government cited the need to reduce regulatory burdens and costs as reasons for scrapping the initiative. It also said it wanted to prioritise building more homes, arguing focussing on energy efficiency would come at the cost of delivery. 

At the time, Kate Henderson – the then-CEO of the Town and Country Planning Association and now head of the NHF – said: “The cancellation of the policy marks the end of any benchmark for building the high quality, sustainable homes that we so desperately need.” 

Decisions made during the Cameron era such as this have been correlated to an additional £9.8bn that the UK public is now paying on their energy use. 

Green Deal

Introduced: 2013 | Ended: 2015 

Initially announced in 2010, the Green Deal was brought in under the 2010-2015 coalition government as a financing mechanism to support energy efficiency improvements in homes and businesses. It allowed property owners to make improvements with the cost repaid through energy bill savings. 

The government pulled the plug on funding for the Green Deal, however, just two years after it came into effect, citing low take-up and concerns around standards. The scheme had received criticism by many for being too complicated and for offering more expensive finance than what households could get from their bank. 

Fewer than 1,800 households signed up to the scheme in the first round, and by the time funding was dropped, just 10,000 households had used the scheme to install energy-efficiency measures. 

In the year following the termination of the government’s decision to pull funding, the National Audit Office (NAO) released a report finding just 1% of UK households took out a Green Deal loan. 

In the report, NAO head Amyas Morse said: “The Department of Energy and Climate Change’s [now the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero] ambitious aim to encourage households to pay for measures looked good on paper. 

“But in practice, its green deal design not only failed to deliver any meaningful benefit, it increased suppliers’ costs – and therefore energy bills – in meeting their obligations through the ECO scheme.” 

It’s worth noting that the Green Deal technically still exists; however, it is now only accessible through the Green Deal Finance Company, which is backed by private investors and not funded by the UK government. 

Green Homes Grant 

Introduced: 2020 | Ended: 2021 

The UK government launched the Green Homes Grant scheme in 2020 to provide financial support – a 'voucher’ of up to £10,000 – to homeowners and landlords in England to make energy-efficient improvements to their properties.  

However, after hitting several challenges, the government prematurely closed the scheme in March 2021. Around 60,000 households were upgraded via the scheme overall, just 10% of what then-chancellor Rishi Sunak initially promised. 

Many criticised the government for the scheme’s poor performance, including the initially prescribed one-year timeframe, which many felt was too short; the lack of public awareness of the scheme; and the failure to recognise limited installer capacity. 

The government cited complications brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the reasons for the scheme’s troubles. 

Following the demise of the initiative, Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “We heard it can take 48 months...to train the specialists required to implement key parts of a scheme that was dreamed up to be rolled out in 12 weeks. It was never going to work at this time, in this way, and that should have been blindingly obvious to the department.” 

Energy Efficiency Taskforce 

Introduced: 2023 | Ended: 2023 

Comprised of industry experts including National Infrastructure chair Sir John Armitt and the UK Green Building Council, the Energy Efficiency Taskforce was touted to help reduce household bills and accelerate the rollout of green home improvements such as insulation and boiler upgrades. 

The group was first announced during Jeremy Hunt’s 2022 autumn statement, when it was tasked with coming up with a plan to reduce energy demand by 15% from 2021 levels by the end of the decade. However, last month, the BBC confirmed the taskforce is now being disbanded – just six months after inception. 

The move comes as Sunak ploughs ahead with a wider series of net-zero U-turns and pushbacks, including the scrapping of energy-efficiency targets for landlords and planned insulation requirements for homeowners, and a 10-year delay to the ban on new gas boilers. 

Sunak’s dilution of net-zero commitments, including the jettisoning of the Net Zero Taskforce, has drawn widespread criticism from across the sector and beyond. 

Emma Pinchbeck, CEO of trade association Energy UK, said: “Sudden changes to policies and targets like this are damaging to the very investment we need to fund the move towards net-zero and jeopardise the economic benefits and opportunities this transformation could bring in terms of jobs, growth, and greater prosperity to all parts of the country.” 

What needs to change? 

While the government vacillates on net-zero, the need to decarbonise and improve the energy efficiency of the UK’s homes only intensifies. There are, however, commitments the government can still make to ensure we make progress on this most critical of issues. 

In our new 10-point plan for housing, we highlight how significant progress must be made in the next decade – by whatever stripe of government – to decarbonise the UK’s housing stock at the pace and scale needed.

We are calling on the UK government to: 

• Drive the investment needed to decarbonise our homes, and commit to a 10-year cross-tenure retrofit programme worth on average at least £6bn per annum 
• Make clean energy affordable, now and forever 
• Invest in skills and innovation to make Britain a world leader in low-carbon technology, retrofit, and construction
• Build the policy, legislative, and regulatory environment for a fair and equitable transition to net-zero.

Image credit: Nagy-Bagoly Arpad/Shutterstock