10 February 2024 , 19:27
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David Cameron’s cuts to “green crap” cost some families as much as £1,000 in a single year, new research suggests.
In all, the ex-PM’s decision to tear up plans to make all new build homes zero carbon added £2.6 billion to energy bills between 2015 and 2022, according to research from the Green Britain Foundation. If the rules had not been scrapped, a family in a house built in 2015 would have saved, on average, £2759.52 in the same period.
“The Government had a golden opportunity to help homeowners and tenants in 1.5 million new build homes with their energy costs,” Environmental campaigner Dale Vince said. Our research exposes how short-sighted David Cameron ’s decision was - it added £2.6 billion to the energy bills of new homes. The code would have been a valuable safety cushion against the energy crisis and future ones.
“The Government’s decision to scrap the Code for Sustainable Homes should be a lesson learnt. Investing in zero carbon technology now can reap huge benefits. It means lower bills, energy independence and less price volatility when external events like the energy crisis happen.”
The Code for Sustainable Homes was first launched in 2006 as a voluntary national standard for the construction of new homes. The then-Labour government planned that by 2016 all new homes would be ‘zero carbon’ - generating as much energy as possible on-site through renewable sources such as wind or solar power.
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The Green Britain Foundation compared the energy efficiency of a Level 6 home, the highest standard under the code, against a new build home after the code was scrapped. It found the average household saving in 2022 would have been £825.50 due to the spike in energy prices after Russia ’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We could have fixed the roofs while the sun was shining,” Mr Vince said. “David Cameron is now back and this government is following that old misguided path - unable to see that green initiatives are about financial goals as well as environmental.”