Our thinking

Winter is coming; your fuel bill might not be

1 October, 2020

Last week marked a dramatic turn from summer to autumn in the UK. 

There are many potentially bleak aspects of the first Covid winter that is fast approaching, including the fact that more time spent at home, both working and all else, leads to a greater need for heating, and the higher fuel bills and emissions that come with it.

So, we welcome some good news this week from the Government (yes you did read that right!) – with the announcement of the Green Homes Grant scheme. This will allow households to apply for funds covering two-thirds of the cost to install insulation, low-carbon heating and a range of other energy efficiency measures.

It’s always a good time to improve energy efficiency – after all, the greenest energy is energy that isn’t needed in the first place (even if you’re on a renewable tariff) and this provides a powerful incentive for action.

So, this is good news for the climate and for consumer finances. And as we believe that the massive shift to working from home also creates a new responsibility for businesses in relation to the energy consumption of their employees (which should now be widely reported in their scope 3 emissions), any move that helps reduce these is good news for them too.

There is one wrinkle: the Government has said the work must completed by 31 March 2021, which may prove a testing time-frame, given what lies ahead. But, given the benefits it offers all round, the answer must be to get on with it.

By Patrick Bapty