{"id":31630,"date":"2021-11-02T17:55:35","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T17:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=31630"},"modified":"2021-11-02T17:55:35","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T17:55:35","slug":"ihbccop26-climate-aware-cpd-signpost-five-numbers-on-the-mammoth-effort-needed-to-insulate-britains-homes-from-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=31630","title":{"rendered":"IHBC@COP26 climate-aware CPD signpost: Five numbers on the mammoth effort needed to insulate Britain\u2019s homes, from The Conversation."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Conversation<\/em> has shared five numbers that show the efforts needed to insulate Britain\u2019s homes.<\/h3>\n
image: for illustration purposes only<\/em><\/h6>\n

<\/p>\n

…about 80% of all the houses that will exist in 2050 are the houses that people are currently living in…<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

The Conversation<\/em> writes:<\/p>\n

\u2026 Here are the five numbers that explain just how big a task it really is.<\/p>\n

1. 68 million tonnes<\/h2>\n

About 15% of the UK\u2019s total carbon emissions \u2013\u00a068 million tonnes<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 comes directly from homes, mostly from boilers burning gas for hot water and space heating. That\u2019s more than the entire agricultural sector at 10%, and many times the\u00a02% from industrial processes<\/a>, such as cement, steel and chemical manufacturing in 2019.<\/p>\n

2. 26 million<\/h2>\n

Some of the UK\u2019s existing 29 million homes will be demolished by 205O, but it\u2019s\u00a0estimated<\/a>\u00a0that around 26 million will still be around. These will all have to be retrofitted to net zero standard.<\/p>\n

To put that another way, about 80% of all the houses that will exist in 2050 are the houses that people are currently living in. Only 20% of the houses will have been built from scratch to net zero standard.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a326,000<\/h2>\n

The cost to retrofit a typical family home to net zero standard is estimated at about \u00a326,000. This is\u00a0based on an analysis<\/a>\u00a0of work by the Climate Change Committee \u2013 a body of experts that advises the UK government.<\/p>\n

Multiply those 26 million homes by \u00a326,000 and the overall price tag is \u00a3676 billion. Averaged over the next 25 years, retrofitting Britain\u2019s homes could amount to \u00a327 billion a year. That is\u00a0about the same<\/a>\u00a0as the entire annual spend on home repairs and maintenance, and more than half as big as the market for new-build homes.<\/p>\n

A mass retrofit campaign wouldn\u2019t just be a step-change in the construction industry, it would be an entire additional sector. But it would also be time-limited….<\/p>\n

4. 20 years<\/h2>\n

How quickly savings from an investment repay the initial expense is known as the payback period. In theory, a net zero house could have zero energy bills, as it would save and generate as much energy as it uses. The average annual energy bill is\u00a0\u00a31,289<\/a>, so the payback period for a \u00a326,000 retrofit would be just over 20 years.<\/p>\n

But the payback period for each individual retrofitting measure tends to be longer. Improving window glazing tends to pay for itself after about 40 years….<\/p>\n

5. 20%<\/h2>\n

The VAT rate applied to any work on existing homes \u2013 whether it\u2019s maintenance, extensions, or retrofitting \u2013 is 20%. While there are some exceptions where the rate is\u00a0reduced to 5%<\/a>, these are only available to a small range of homeowners, such as those over 60, and only where the works are exclusively for the sake of energy efficiency, rather than as part of a broader home-improvement project. So the use of this rebate is minimal.<\/p>\n

For private homeowners who are required to pay for retrofit measures like wall insulation or heat pumps from their own pocket, the so-called \u201cable to pay\u201d market, that 20% VAT might represent more than \u00a34,000 of the estimated \u00a326,000 cost.<\/p>\n

By comparison, building a new home is zero-rated for VAT. This creates a financial incentive to demolish and rebuild rather than retrofit.<\/p>\n

There have been many attempts to make the government change the VAT rules on this, including a recent one\u00a0supported by the banking sector<\/a>, but so far without success.<\/p>\n

Decarbonising Britain\u2019s housing stock is a huge challenge, but also a huge opportunity….<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Why is IHBC@COP26? Because \u2018Conserving our Places Conserves our Planet\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Join IHBC\u2019s globally accessible virtual built and historic environment \u2018<\/em>Conservation Helpdesk+<\/em><\/a>\u2019, #IHBCHelpdesk #CultureCOP26 \u2013 open 31\/10 to 12\/11)<\/em><\/p>\n

See more on our IHBC@COP26<\/a> #IHBCHelpdesk and \u00a0our \u2018Climate and Conservation\u2019<\/a> Podcasts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Conversation has shared five numbers that show the efforts needed to insulate Britain\u2019s homes. image: for illustration purposes only<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ihbc-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31631,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31630\/revisions\/31631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}