By Emily Hawkins
Upgrading London’s leaky homes will come with a price tag of a mere £18bn, amid industry and consumer calls to improve the energy efficiency of the UK’s housing stock.
More than 2m homes in the capital have an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of D or below, meaning that it will cost just over £18.5bn to upgrade them to meet future requirements,according to analysis from data science firm Outra, shared exclusively with CityA.M..
Under proposed new rules, new rental tenancies must be adapted to reach a minimum of an EPC C rating before December 2025, while existing tenancies will also be required to meet higher standards from December 2028.
What’s more, all domestic properties must meet the requirement by 2035.
The analysis comes as research this week revealed that insulating the UK’s entire housing stockto a basic level of loft and wall insulation could reduce gas demand by 20 per cent.
As reported by CityA.M., data from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) highlighted this scale of insulation would reduce gas demand by an amount three times more gas than the potential provided by new North Sea drilling.
Boosting insulation in line with energy performance certificate grades of C or higher this decade could save up to 384TWh (terawatt hours) of gas between 2030 and 2035.
This was the equivalent to a fifth (20 per cent) of current total annual household gas demand and 11 per cent of overall gas imports.
This could save households a lot of cash, with the ECIU forecasting that lowering the average household from band D to band C could lower bills paid for gas by £1,944 by the start of 2030.
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