According to the WWF, excluding unregulated energy use within the home effectively transfers the task of providing clean energy for these homes from the housebuilder to the wider power sector. It says that decarbonising the grid by 2030 now becomes harder and by transfering the costs from the housebuilder/homeowner to energy bill payers in general, what was a private cost for a homeowner now becomes a cost for the general public regardless of income and ability to pay.
“WWF can therefore no longer work with the taskforce, nor support the policy”, the organisation said.
“This fundamental shift in policy will result in new homes being built that add to the overall emissions burden of UK homes. The zero carbon homes policy, as it stood, would have been a pioneering policy instrument for the UK, putting us not only ahead of European housing policy, but in the lead globally too. Such leadership had the potential to provide the UK with major economic and environmental benefits. Moreover, the zero carbon homes policy had cross-party support.”
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