CIOB renews call for national retrofit plan after ‘carbon budget’

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has renewed its call to government to make a national retrofit plan a key part of its industrial strategy, following the launch of the Climate Change Committee’s sixth ‘carbon budget’.

The carbon budget warned that buildings are a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

The CIOB said: “Upgrading the UK’s existing building stock through retrofitting is vital to achieving the net zero target and will deliver a range of wider benefits including improved comfort and health for end users, as well as reducing the financial burdens of poor housing on the NHS. The budget rightly recognises this and sets out a £55bn household energy efficiency programme with 15 million households to receive main insulation measures and a further eight million to benefit from draught-proofing.

“The Climate Change Committee notes that for the construction industry, the government must move from the current piecemeal approach to a comprehensive transition support framework. Historically, a lack of confidence in long-term policy direction has impeded the construction industry’s ability to invest in low carbon technologies and skills, and reinforced a corrosive lowest-cost procurement model which fails to account for environmental outcomes.

“The CIOB has long been calling on the government to make a national retrofit plan a key infrastructure priority and core element of the Industrial Strategy. This will provide a clear direction of travel for the construction industry and the certainty the private sector needs to invest in improving the energy efficiency of our built environment.”

The CCC’s Sixth Carbon Budget can be accessed here: https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/sixth-carbon-budget/