As an MP who has had a major energy-efficient retrofit of my home, I am optimistic about how voters will react to this week’s Carbon Budget Growth Delivery Plan and what can be achieved over the next decade in the green transition.
The reality of what’s happening on the ground is quite different from what net zero sceptics seem to think. Businesses in my constituency are jumping on opportunities for retrofit. Many schools in the area have installed solar panels, as has the local hospital, lowering bills and costs for taxpayers.
In August, Stourbridge Community Land Trust in partnership with GreenSquareAccord finally got planning permission for a car-free development built to the highest Passivhaus low energy standards.
A group in Stourbridge is setting up a community solar project, so a cluster of homes benefits from generating their own energy. It strongly counters the narrative that the green transition is a woke, liberal agenda, when people are actively doing it and liking it.
On a recent visit to a nut processing factory, directors told me how their new solar panels and heat pumps have made such a difference to the building and their costs. A Brierley Hill steel processing plant is encouraging neighbours to join them in the transition to low carbon with the ambition to become the first retrofitted renewable-powered industrial estate. And Stourbridge Glass Museum, which switched to a first-of-its-kind renewable-powered blast furnace, has just won a Lottery Award for sustainable practice. Stourbridge is setting a bit of a benchmark, showing people things they thought weren’t possible, while keeping our heritage pride alive.
For the refurb of our home, a 1930s semi, my husband and I opted for an air source heat pump, solar panels with battery and external wall insulation. As well as the government grant for the heat pump, we took advantage of a scheme from our mortgage provider where lenders get £5,000 back on green tech like solar panels. We’re very happy with how the building looks and feels.
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In the first year we calculated monthly bills fell from £200 to about £45, and we estimate the work will pay for itself in 10-15 years. We have been getting 15p per kWh of the electricity our solar panels export to the grid – this may improve when we renew our tariff soon.
Home renewables need to be more accessible with more financing options, and myths such as that it’s impossible to get them in a conservation area addressed. Since the election, the government has made it easier for people to get an air source heat pump by relaxing planning permission on how close they can be to neighbours. I now want to see a push on housing developers to get more measures installed on new build schemes, such as better insulation and heat pumps as standard.
Dudley and other local authorities are retrofitting council houses. Not all get upgraded. Resources should be available to scale up the work and make sure end-of-terrace homes don’t get left out. It’s important local people deliver installation and maintenance work – this is moving in the right direction as more training becomes available.
One big worry is that the grid upgrade and building battery energy storage systems needs to go a lot faster, and concerns about this must be addressed. We have to tell a cross-cutting story of why the upgrade needs to happen – that we need energy security – and educate people that you can have biodiversity on farms co-existing with solar panels. It needs to be explained that much of the Green Belt isn’t very green or accessible. And the threat isn’t just Russia – it’s that we hadn’t upgraded the grid for so long and we desperately need more supply.
To address the ECO4 insulation scandal, we should face up to things having gone wrong, explain what happened and do better in future; and meanwhile keep telling positive stories about insulation best practice.
On electricity bills, we have to get a handle on the fact that there is no upper limit on business tariffs. We need to consider social tariffs for struggling domestic billpayers. We promised to cut energy bills and on two or three occasions since the election they have gone up, damaging trust. If there are things we can do that will ease the pressure on people in the short term, we should do these.
But the big picture on the green transition as the Carbon Budget is announced is there are lots of people already on board, like the residents and businesses in my constituency. It is a case of holding the Government’s feet to the fire to make sure they don’t retreat, as backbench colleagues and I did on making rooftop solar standard. We must build proper homes with the green technologies people need so they don’t have to keep adding to them. And all the small things we can do now – from grants to investment in training and retrofitting – will make things better in the long run.
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