Government misses interim fuel poverty target

The government has missed its interim target on upgrading fuel poor homes to an energy efficiency rating of at least E by 2020, the Committee on Fuel Poverty has confirmed.

In its latest interim report, the committee made a number of recommendations to help ensure the government reaches its 2025 and 2030 targets.

Recommendations include the better targeting of schemes on fuel poor households and for the Warm Home Discount (WHD) and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) schemes to be extended.

At the start of the 2015 fuel poverty strategy, there were 293,000 fuel poor homes deemed to be in Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) bands F and G.

The interim 2020 target was to ensure that as many of these homes “as reasonably practicable” were upgraded to at least an E rating.

The committee had previously forecast this would be missed in its 2020 annual report and its latest publication has confirmed these fears, with only around half of the 293,000 having been upgraded. The figures are based on data from 2018, the latest available.

The report found that the main reason for the 2020 target being missed was the fact that the current version of ECO did not apply the ‘worst first’ guiding principle when it was designed. As such, ECO3 is forecast to upgrade only around 25,000 fuel poor band F/G homes.

It further explained that while there were “more than sufficient funds available” to deliver the 2020 milestone, only between 10 per cent and 30 per cent of programme budgets are currently received by fuel poor households.

A very small percentage of the funds focused on the fuel poor, the report said, were aimed at those in the deepest levels of fuel poverty. It found “insufficient progress” was made to re-focus available funds and programmes to improve the energy efficiency of fuel poor homes or to assist fuel poor households to afford to pay their energy bills.

Going forward, the committee said it is concerned that there is also a risk of missing the 2025 interim target of getting as many homes as is reasonable to band D. Currently only 50 per cent of this target has been reached and the committee warned progress is forecast to be slow.

The committee urged the government to approve long-term funding for the Home Upgrade Grant programme and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. The targeting of these funds, it added, must be tightly focused on those in the deepest levels of fuel poverty.

Among its other recommendations, the committee called for the WHD and ECO schemes to be further extended to 2030, four years later than the current plans outlined in the energy white paper. This, it said, is to help fund the delivery of the 2030 band C target.

In future, the committee said WHD should be primarily focused on households with incomes of deciles 1 to 4 and who live in band D/E/F/G homes. There should be a minimum target of 60 per cent of WHD energy bill rebates automatically being provided to fuel poor households in future schemes.

There needs to be a better targeting of schemes on fuel poor households through the use of greater data sharing between government departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions, HMRC, the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government, and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Proposals to extend the minimum energy efficiency standards for private rented homes to EPC band C by 2028 should include ways to incentivise landlords of band E/F/G properties to meet the 2025 EPC band D milestone.

Responding to the report, a BEIS spokesperson said:  “We are continuing to make significant progress in tackling fuel poverty, with 1.3 million fewer low-income households living in the least energy efficient homes compared to 2010.

“As a result of government policy, energy bills are lower today than they were in 2010 and we’ve successfully cut power emissions by 70 per cent – the fastest in the G7.

“But we want to go further and faster, ensuring nobody goes cold in their own home. We are on track to meet the 2025 milestone, and our new fuel poverty strategy sets out our plan for reaching this, as we invest £1.3 billion to upgrade the energy efficiency of homes, helping low-income families significantly reduce their energy bills.”

Gillian Cooper, head of energy policy for Citizens Advice, said: “Improving the energy efficiency of fuel poor homes will be crucial to achieving net zero. With more than 3.2 million households still living in fuel poverty, there is no time to waste.

“We support the committee’s calls to improve the targeting of energy efficiency schemes for fuel poor households – prioritising those who need support the most.

“Local authorities should be given more resources to deliver such schemes. And there needs to be greater clarity on what the different schemes do and how they work together, so that it’s easier for people to use them.”

Matt Copeland, head of policy and public affairs at National Energy Action, said: “The Committee on Fuel Poverty has shown that the 2020 fuel poverty milestone has been missed, with more than quarter of a million households still living in the least efficient, coldest properties. This is simply unacceptable.

“The government has the solutions to end fuel poverty, but must commit the new money in order to do so. We agree with the committee that Treasury should commit long term funding for energy efficiency in the upcoming spending review to get this government back on track to meeting their legal obligations.”