New UK Houses Must Get off Gas: CCC

The UK’s legally-binding climate change targets will not be met without the near-complete elimination of greenhouse gas emissions from UK buildings, according to a report by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) published February 21.

To avoid this, among its recommendations are that all new homes should be made low-carbon heat ready. By 2025  at the latest, no new homes should have a gas grid connection, and should instead rely on low-carbon heating systems such as heat pumps. It also wants wood to be used more in house construction.

The CCC is an independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act.

It said emissions reductions from the UK’s 29mn homes have stalled, while energy use in homes – which accounts for 14% of total UK emissions – increased between 2016 and 2017.

Efforts to adapt the UK’s housing stock to the impacts of the changing climate: for higher average temperatures, flooding and water scarcity, are lagging far behind what is needed to keep us safe and comfortable, even as these climate change risks grow.

Carbon-free heating is already the plan for Amsterdam. Like the UK, the Netherlands has a very high reliance on gas for space heating, thanks to its once very large indigenous gas supplies.

The committee’s report says action is needed in the following five areas:

• The way new homes are built and existing homes retrofitted often falls short of stated design standards.
• The chopping and changing of UK government policy has led to a skills gap in housing design, construction and in the installation of new technologies.
• Existing homes should be low-carbon and resilient to the changing climate. This is a major UK infrastructure priority, and must be supported as such by the finance ministry.
• New homes should be built to be low-carbon, energy and water efficient, and climate resilient.
• There are urgent funding gaps which must be addressed, including secure UK government funding for low-carbon sources of heating beyond 2021, and better resources for local authorities.