home makeover could offer cheap energy - 10/02/2009

A quarter of Britain's homes could be offered an environmental facelift under new plans from the government, potentially increasing access to cheap energy supplies.

Ministers are preparing to launch plans offering support to properties to improve their energy efficiency and become greener.

Up to seven million homes across the country will be given help to upgrade insulation and other facilities to improve efficiency, but the proposals will also see greater use of environmental technologies such as erecting wind turbines and installing solar panels.

The scheme – which is expected to be announced by ministers on Thursday – will form part of the government's efforts to cut emissions by a third by 2020.

"Twenty-seven per cent of emissions in this country come from people's homes and if they don't cut emissions from homes radically we have got no hope of achieving our climate change targets," Ed Matthew, head of UK climate for Friends of the Earth, told the Guardian.

Improving the energy efficiency of a property can have a significant impact on cutting energy bills, while investing in renewable energy sources by suppliers can also reduce costs.

The head of Scottish Power recently claimed that energy bills wolud not fall significantly in the medium-term because suppliers are increasingly pouring money into infrastructure and technological investments.

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