"We must not forget this is a marathon, it is a 30-year ambition. We don’t have to do it all in two years but we have to get moving in the first two years and we have to identify where the gaps are and quickly train people up to deliver that.”

Michael Lewis, Chief Executive of E.ON UK

Commenting on the publication of the Environmental Audit Committee's report on the energy efficiency of existing homes, E.ON UK CEO Michael Lewis said:

“The fundamental foundation stone of zero carbon is improving the energy efficiency of homes and it’s something where we at E.ON have spent have spent the last ten years doing a huge amount of work – around 1.5m measures over that time.

“We have two fundamental challenges to overcome; making energy efficiency attractive and desirable to customers, and also growing the jobs and skills base to deliver what is needed.

“To make energy efficient home improvements attractive to consumers – both in how they are delivered and how they are financed – we need things like a green mortgage to provide easy and cheap finance, and incentives such as reduced Council Tax and stamp duties for energy efficient homes. Zero rated VAT on energy efficiency products would also inspire people to make the greener choices, rather than just the cheapest.

“The other problem is we’ve had lots of short term schemes which have discouraged investment just as quickly as they’ve encouraged it. What we really need is for Government to drive the supply chain for the long term. We must not forget this is a marathon, it is a 30-year ambition. We don’t have to do it all in two years but we have to get moving in the first two years and we have to identify where the gaps are and quickly train people up to deliver that.”

Michael Lewis also called for increased investment in the local authority-led element of the Green Homes Grant scheme, diverting unused funds from the £1.5bn voucher scheme into regional projects to alleviate fuel poverty in less well-off homes.

He added: “The Local Authority Delivery scheme has been very successful – in fact it’s over-subscribed. We’re working with a number of local authorities and some of them weren’t able to do schemes because there wasn’t enough funding available. But LAD is only £200m this year in contrast to £1.5bn for the voucher scheme.

“If it’s a question of getting the thing moving quickly, which we think it is, we should build on successful policies – LAD is successful. Funding from the voucher scheme should be redirected to the LAD scheme and enable some of that untapped demand to be picked up. If we change some of the rules around the LAD scheme, for instance the cap of £10k per home lifted to £15k, it means we can do more work.”

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