The minister ignores the CLC’s warning about the energy efficiency target

A key report has warned that the industry is “not on track” to improve energy efficiency in millions of homes, but Minister Nusrat Ghani did not acknowledge the warning in the document’s foreword.

In its seventh quarterly Construct Zero Performance Framework report, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) gave a red rating to the industry’s target to upgrade 11.13 million homes to an EPC C rating by 2035. L ‘ambicio is the only one of the 14 targets to receive a red rating.

A red rating means “there is no government policy intervention and the industry is not meeting the target”.

However, CLC co-chair and construction minister Nusrat Ghani did not mention the rating or energy efficiency of the UK’s housing stock in her foreword to the report, despite saying the government must “speed up the pace in two [other] areas”.

Ghani also did not mention the issue in a five-minute video made to accompany the formal launch of the report at the London Build event last week.

Instead, the minister said in her introduction that work needs to continue on the number of trained heat pump installers and the volume of electric vans on the road.

He added: “It’s clear we’ve made progress. However, there are challenges. Working in partnership with our growing network of over 220 companies, we will continue to learn from each other and lead the industry’s progress towards zero “.

An executive summary of the report noted that “the demand for heat in buildings must decrease by more than 25 percent between 2019 and 2035, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We are currently showing an increase [in] 2020 and 2021, most likely linked to the shift to working from home.”

The summary adds: “In terms of government policy, the most significant impact is that of the Prime Minister [recent] speech [on net zero] was to scrap policies to force landlords to improve the energy efficiency of their properties by 2028.”

The CLC describes the Construct Zero Performance Framework as a “sector-level dashboard on our progress towards net zero”. The dashboard tracks nine priority areas, 14 goals and 31 metrics.

Six of the 14 performance targets received amber ratings, indicating more work is needed, while one target received a gray rating as there is no data to demonstrate progress. Only six targets (less than half) have green ratings, meaning they are considered to be on track. (See the full list of goals and scores below.)

Amber-rated targets include a commitment to ensure half of all homes are connected to low-carbon heat sources such as heat pumps by 2035; and reduce emissions from construction products by two-thirds by 2035.

Targets considered on track include ensuring 70% of construction vans are electric by 2030, although the report says this target is still “quite a question” as data shows only 5.5% of vans sold year to date were electric. .

The framework’s last quarterly update, which was released in August, showed the industry was on track for less than half of its nine net zero priorities. Since then, the CLC has moved to apply a traffic light system to its 14 performance targets rather than the nine priorities.

Hannah Vickers and Matt Palmer, respectively the Construct Zero program director and industry sponsor for net zero, said in their executive summary that despite “a lot of noise” about the government’s recent net zero announcements, which were widely seen as The drop in key net zero policies, the data showed their impact was less significant.

There were some short-term changes that would influence business decisions, they added, but the biggest risk was political rhetoric that signaled to businesses that net zero was less of a priority.

“In fact, it is our financial markets and investors and ultimately our end customers, or rather the children of our end customers, who will determine what is and what is not a priority,” he said.