A new digital service to help homeowners improve the energy performance of their homes and cut their energy bills has been launched by the Housing Minister Christopher Pincher today (30 September 2020).
The new service will make it easier to find an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) assessor – which is essential for anyone looking to move home or to understand the action that can be taken to improve the energy performance of a home or building.
Households could save £600 a year through improvements such as insulation, double glazing and low-carbon heating.
Around 40% of the UK’s energy consumption and carbon emissions arise from the way buildings are lit, heated and used so improving the energy efficiency of buildings will be a major factor in meeting the government’s target of net zero emissions by 2050.
The site also enables policy makers to gather high quality data to understand the energy performance of existing housing stock.
Housing Minister Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP said:
This new service is part of our commitment to improving the energy performance of all properties to create a cleaner, greener built environment.
It will help people to assess if they can improve the energy efficiency of their own homes – helping to improve the environment and save on bills.
We are improving the quality of housing across the country by ensuring new homes adhere to strict energy efficiency standards and our Green Homes Grant helps to cover the cost of making energy efficient improvements to existing homes.
The new online register will continue to house searchable data on over 27 million energy assessments, enabling residents and landlords to obtain their EPC and to take action to improve the energy performance of their property.
Alongside this, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is publishing a summary of responses and action plan which explores how to build a better, more accurate and trusted Energy Performance Certificates system.
This is part of the Clean Growth Strategy, in partnership with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The government’s Green Homes Grant provides a voucher that covers two-thirds of the cost of qualifying energy efficiency or low carbon heating improvements to existing homes. The maximum value of the voucher is £5,000 or up to £10,000 for those on a low income.
