The government could be 77 years behind on plans to cut carbon emissions by insulating hard to reach homes, according to its own figures. Cuts to its flagship scheme the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) mean its commitment to building one of the “least wasteful, more energy efficient, most climate friendly societies in the developed world” may be hard to achieve.

Government advisor the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) suggests that if the country is going to hit its carbon emission reductions targets, 2.3 million solid walls need to insulated by 2022. But under new government plans, energy companies are only required to install 25,000 solid wall insulation measures a year.

The changes have also threatened the solid wall insulation industry, making it less likely that it can play a significant part in bringing down the country’s emissions in the near future.

Struggling for solid wall insulation 

The ECO programme forms a part of the government’s plan to tackle fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions. It requires energy providers to subsidise home insulation in low-income households and hard to reach areas. A core part of this mission is a requirement to install  solid wall insulation in older houses, which would be hard for most people to afford without help.

Last December, chancellor George Osborne announced changes to ECO. ECO’s emissions-savings target – known as the Carbon Emissions Reduction Obligation (CERO) has been cut by a third. And as part of this, energy companies are now required to install 25,000 solid wall insulation measures a year until 2017 – less than half the previous target of 60,000 a year.

The sudden change threw the solid wall industry into disarray, and there’s little sign it’s about to recover any time soon. 70 per cent of housing association landlords said the change would would harm their plans to install home insulation measures either “dramatically” or “significantly”, according to research by InsideHousing magazine.

And that’s how it’s turned out, according to campaigners. The industry’s has to wait three months for the government consultation on the changes to appear. During that time “almost nothing has happened” in the solid wall insulation industry, says Andrew Warren from the Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE).

Prices energy companies are prepared to pay for cutting emissions have “plummeted”, InsideHousing says. Southampton council, for example, is “attempting to resuscitate” a £30 million deal to retrofit 2,000 social homes with insulation, after the amount of money energy suppliers would contribute under ECO dropped by half. 

85 years to cut emissions 

Now the consultation has appeared firming up government plans, the solid wall insulation industry may have enough certainty to begin a recovery.

But even if that’s the case, the government’s plans for cutting emissions by making British homes use energy more efficient may take a hit. Government advisor the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) suggests that if the country is going to hit its carbon emissions targets, 2.3 million solid walls need to insulated by 2022.

Taking into account the number of homes that have already had solid wall insulation fitted (about 175,000) it would take 85 years to achieve the CCC’s target of 2.3 million homes at a rate of 25,000 a year. That’s instead of eight years, as the CCC recommended.

Extra benefits for energy companies

The government says the cuts to ECO won’t hurt its plans to reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this, it says it’s providing an extra £450 million to incentivise home buyers to install new energy efficiency measures, and £90 million for energy efficiency measures in schools.

It’s not really clear how this money is going to be spent, though, according to National Energy Action (NEA) – so it’s hard to judge how effective it will be.

Energy companies that have already delivered a “substantial” part of their emissions savings targets are also being offered extra credits – up to 1.75 times more for each unit of carbon. That essentially means their emissions-cutting targets are being weakened a little bit more.

Does the government really care about energy efficiency? 

It’s particularly difficult to cut emissions by installing solid wall insulation, and a lot easier to do it by insulating lofts or putting in cavity wall insulation. So the changes to ECO aren’t the whole story. The government is also trying to strengthen its Green Deal programme, which offers loans to encourage householder to install slightly less complicated energy efficiency measures.

But so far, the Green Deal is also struggling to deliver its predicted benefits. All this presents a problem for a government which continues to argue that it’s going to use an extensive energy efficiency programme to reduce consumers energy bills and emissions over the next few years.

Overall, the government just isn’t committed enough to its energy efficiency programme, according to the NEA. It argues there are some good ideas in the ECO consultation – but not enough money being committed. Without putting the money in, the danger is, it isn’t going to get the benefits out the other end.