Energy and Climate Change CommitteeSupplementary written evidence submitted by National Energy Action

During the Committee’s oral evidence session of March 12 2013, NEA was asked By Barry Gardiner MP to provide a note clarifying our assertion in a separate document that 45% of fuel-poor households would be unable to benefit from cavity wall insulation under the Energy Company Obligation. The basis of NEA’s statement is set out below.

The official fuel poverty data for 2010 indicated that just over one million fuel-poor households occupied dwellings with uninsulated cavity walls.

The Final Stage Impact Assessment for the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation assumes that, to 2016,1 320,000 dwellings benefit from cavity wall insulation under the Affordable Warmth Obligation and 312,000 under the Carbon Saving Communities Obligation.2

Since Energy Company Obligation measures will be installed across Great Britain we have assumed a pro rata distribution in which 85.6% of the work is carried out in England. The inference is that 538,000 installations are carried out in England which would represent a maximum 54% improvement rate on behalf of fuel-poor households.

Consequently, at least 46% of fuel-poor households would be unable to benefit from cavity wall insulation, the single most cost-effective thermal insulation measure.

March 2013