Figures for Home Insulation Rates Across UK Published

Tuesday, 9 August 2011, 4:17 PM

On 4 August the Energy Saving Trust (EST) publishd a breakdown of the number of homes across England, Scotland and Wales that have had loft and cavity wall insulation professionally installed under the UK Government's Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT). The figures, which cover the period April 2008-March 2011, are released on a regional, council and constituency basis.

CERT requires all domestic energy suppliers with a base of more than 50,000 customers to make savings in the amount of CO2 emitted by householders by promoting the uptake of low carbon energy solutions - particularly the installation of insulation measures - to their customers.

Key statistics from the new report by Energy Saving Trust, which summarises where CERT insulation was installed between April 2008 and March 2011, include:

Between April 2010 - March 2011 the largest number of insulation measures were installed in: Birmingham (12,079); Leeds (11,244); Bradford (9,078); Fife (8,163); Wiltshire (7,872)
The top five performing local authorities under the CERT scheme over the past three years, in terms of percentage of housing stock insulated, are Kirklees (24.8%); Isle of Anglesey (22.5%); Carmarthenshire (19.2%); South Ribble (19%); Wyre (18.2%)
The five local authorities that have seen the lowest percentage of the housing stock insulated over the past three years through CERT are City of London (<0.1%); Westminster (0.3%); Kensington and Chelsea (0.8%); Hackney (1.3%); Hammersmith and Fulham (1.6%).

The report's authors stressed that there were a number of reasons why some regions have benefitted more from CERT than others, including: the time frame of the scheme, suppliers working where it is cheapest for them to do so, and areas having high numbers of properties that are unsuitable for insulation or do not require it.

According to figures released in June this year, only 57% of UK lofts had been properly insulated and only 58% of cavity walls had been filled.

Recently, the UK Government announced an extension to CERT, beyond March 2011 to December 2012. The CERT extension, which has been restructured around a new higher target and significantly refocused around supporting insulation, aims to impact 3.5 million homes.

From next year, the CERT scheme will run alongside the UK Government's Green Deal, which will establish a framework to enable private firms to offer consumers energy efficiency improvements to their homes, community spaces and businesses at no upfront cost, and to recoup payments through a charge in instalments on the energy bill.

Access the full EST CERT Report.
Read the related DECC press release.
People who want advice on insulating their home should contact the Energy Saving Trust.