New online tool to highlight energy bill savings that could be on offer if the government accelerates national insulation and heat pump roll out
Greenpeace UK has today launched a new online calculator that shows how the typical UK home could miss out on savings of £1,800 every year on their energy bills by the end of this decade unless the government ramps up plans to roll out insulation and heat pumps.
Developed by analyst firm Cambridge Econometrics for Greenpeace, the Affordable Energy Calculator allows people to find out how key government decisions about home energy upgrades are likely to affect their energy bills in the coming years.
The calculator applies the latest economic data, forecasts, and models to individual dwellings to predict what a household's energy bill is likely to be with and without a heat pump and sufficient insulation in place.
Greenpeace said if the government makes the investment necessary to meet its currently unfunded 2030 energy saving targets and supports an expanded UK heat pump programme, a typical UK home would see an average difference in their bills of £1,832 a year.
The calculator echoes previous analysis that alleges UK energy bills are currently billions of pounds higher than they would have been if the government had not slashed funding for energy efficiency schemes and blocked onshore renewables development.
Its launch also comes just days after two separate reports detailed how the UK is badly lagging behind many of its European neighbours in its roll out of heat pumps.
"Britain's homes waste more heat than any in Western Europe," said Georgia Whitaker, climate campaigner for Greenpeace UK. "We can't afford to carry on wasting energy like this in a cost of living crisis. Greener homes would keep communities warm and healthy and save us all money. We need the government to support home improvements like insulation and heat pumps to lower bills, boost the economy, and help the UK reach our climate goals. Heating our homes really shouldn't cost the earth."
Her comments were echoed by Jen Dicks, managing economist at Cambridge Econometrics, who said the new Affordable Energy Calculator would give individuals "greater clarity about how improving both the energy efficiency of their home and installing a heat pump can substantially reduce household energy bills through reduced energy demand".
She added that there was a compelling economic case for the government to ramp up funding for green home programmes. "Reduced energy demand is not only good for households who are struggling with high energy bills and the cost of living in general, but public investment in decarbonising UK homes has the potential to also deliver greater economic growth whilst tackling emission reductions in the long-term," she said.
The launch of the calculator comes ahead of plans from Greenpeace and other campaign groups in the Warm this Winter coalition for a mass lobby of MPs to demand that the government takes immediate action to tackle fuel poverty ahead of next winter.
The move also joins a wave of calls from campaigners, businesses, and parliamentarians for the government to use the upcoming Spring Budget to bring forward plans to provide a further £6bn of new funding for energy efficiency programmes from 2025 and ramp up the promotion of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme that incentivises households to switch to heat pumps.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero was considering a request for the comment at the time of going to press.
