Mass insulation could cut child asthma by two-thirds

Improving the energy efficiency of fuel poor households could slash the number of children suffering from asthma by 700,000, Energy UK’s deputy chief executive has told MPs.

Dhara Vyas outlined the wider social benefits of energy efficiency upgrades, while giving evidence to the House of Commons energy security and net zero select committee’s inquiry into ‘Heating Our Homes’.

As well as creating up to 350,000 jobs, such works could have “huge impacts on the health of fuel-poor households, she said: “You could stop just under 700,000 children from developing asthma by targeting support to fuel-poor households.”

That equates to around two-thirds of the 1.1m children who Asthma UK estimates are receiving treatment for the condition, which continues for many into adulthood.

Earlier in the hearing, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) officials were grilled by the committee on last year’s 55% drop in energy efficiency installations.

Jessica Skilbeck, the department’s director for net zero buildings, told MPs that the “big driver” for this drop had been the hiatus surrounding the transition to the latest phase of the ECO (energy company obligation) scheme.

The move to ECO4, delayed after the government failed to put in place necessary regulations until after the scheme was due to go live in the summer of 2022, had resulted in significant policy changes involving deeper retrofit projects, which are “now working their way through”, she said.

And the latest ECO4 installation figures show that the number of homes upgraded has risen to 65,000 homes with internal management data showing a “strongly upward trajectory”.

“The market is responding to those policy changes,” Skilbeck said, adding that the run rate of installation is “where it needs to be” to meet targets.

David Capper, director for clean heat at DESNZ, defended the UK’s relatively low rate of heat pump installations by arguing that the governments Boiler Upgrade Scheme is at “the most generous end” of grants being offered elsewhere in Europe.

He also said the government’s Clean Heat Market Mechanism, which will require the gas boiler manufacturers to ensure that a proportion of new heating is low carbon, “goes beyond what many European countries are doing”.

“It is not easy and there is a long way to go, but… I can show you that there is a path of how you could get to 600,000 in 2028,” he added.

However, Capper acknowledged there are “issues” with gas heating engineers continuing to recommend only gas boilers and not giving consumers alternative heating options.

He also said that the balance of gas and electricity prices, which reflects how policy costs are added to the latter, is “distorted” and “people should have a greater incentive to switch to a heat pump”.

David Robson, CEO of energy efficiency installers InstaGroup, slammed the failure so far to set up an apprenticeship for  energy efficiency installers. “The fact that we still do not have an apprenticeship scheme in place for insulation-based trades is ridiculous,” he said.