CCC Report Requires Gas Boilers To Get Banned From New UK Homes By 2025 To Cut GHG Emissions

New homes should ban the installation of Gas hobs or boilers in the next six years as per the recommendation of official climate advisers of the government, and thus it would call time on cooking hobs, boilers and gas radiators. They are harming the environment as per the climate advisers.

Committee on Climate Change (CCC) reported that any new home should not be given connection to the gas grid from 2025 “at the latest.”The super-efficient houses and flats would use low-carbon energy instead.

The committee found UK homes unfit for the future in its effort to reduce greenhouse gases from housing and warns that the properties are exposed to growing risk of overheating and flooding.

The government needs to think seriously to tackle emissions from homes and to ensure that they can cope up with more extreme weather like heat waves, droughts and floods in the future and also safeguarding health, well-being, and comfort of the people.

The builders are deceiving the householders by not providing energy efficiency measures in new homes as per the stated design standards and also in existing “retrofitted” properties according to the committee.

The new homes could save homes between £70 and £260 a year on their energy bills by closing the “performance gap” between the standards of design and achieved design.

In homes, many cooks still prefer gas hobs to electric as it is easier to control heat and they may get disappointed switching to gas hobs. However, the Committee on Climate Change strongly recommends low-carbon heat sources for new homes.

For enforcing the building standards, cash-strapped councils require better funding and penalties should be strict for non-compliance in that case. The Treasury should support the measures like installing low-carbon heating such as heat pumps, loft, and wall insulation, and protection for the properties at risk of flooding as a “major infrastructure priority.”

The Government should support the training of designers, installers of climate-friendly technology and builders to create green jobs by addressing the low-carbon skills gap.

The chair of the CCC’s adaptation sub-committee, Baroness Brown said: “There are almost 30m homes in the UK, and the depressing fact is most of them are not in a condition to keep us comfortable and productive and well as the climate changes.

“They are a huge part of the problem – energy use in our homes is around a fifth of greenhouse gases, and the biggest part of those emissions is from burning gas for heating and hot water.”

She said the government requires net zero emissions to curb rising temperatures and meet the climate targets. Therefore it “has to get serious about this.”

The government should encourage building 300,000 new homes every year with much higher standards through measures as suggested by Brown.

“We shouldn’t be allowing 300,000 substandard homes that will need upgrading to be built, they should be built to the right standard now,” she asserted.

“We could tell house builders who are making a lot of money from help to buy that it’s only available for homes of a really high quality.”

A government spokesman ensured to consider the recommendations carefully and added, “The UK has reduced emissions faster than any other G7 nation, and moving to a greener, cleaner economy while continuing to grow the economy is at the heart of our modern industrial strategy.

“Over the next 10 years, we have committed to drive £6bn to improve the energy efficiency of lower income and vulnerable households.”

According to the Home Builders Federation, this proposal of the ban would make new homes less appealing to the buyers because gas boilers are often cheaper and preferred by buyers.

The Times reported that a low-carbon heating system could add £5,000 to the cost of a new home.

However, the committee noted that the high-tech low-carbon heaters could take longer to warm a room compared to the traditional boilers.

Householders also have the role in cutting emissions and making homes more resilient to climate change, through measures including setting boilers and thermostats to the right temperature.

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About Arindom Ghosh

A professional writer, editor, blogger, copywriter, and a member of the International Association of Professional Writers and Editors, New York. He has been part of many reputed domestic and global online magazines and publications. An avid reader and a nature lover by heart, when he is not working, he is probably exploring the secrets of life.